YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND Issue 01 – January 8 - February 4 – 2010 www.grapevine.is + COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 2

Editorial | Haukur S Magnússon 2009 in Pictures JULIA STAPLES Art Director: Hörður Kristbjörnsson YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND www.grapevine.is + Issue 01 – January 8 - February 4 – 2010 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! [email protected] Design: Jóhannes Kjartansson [email protected] Photographers: Hörður Sveinsson / hordursveinsson.com Julia Staples / juliastaples.com

Sales Director: Aðalsteinn Jörundsson Cover llustration by: [email protected] Hugleikur Dagsson Guðmundur Rúnar Svansson [email protected] Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies. Distribution: [email protected] The Reykjavík Grapevine Proofreader: Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík Jim Rice www.grapevine.is [email protected] Press releases: Published by Fröken ehf. [email protected] www.froken.is Submissions inquiries: Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry [email protected] Association - www.saf.is These images are from a series titled "Home". Subscription inquiries: +354 540 3605 / [email protected] They summon up feelings about a distant Editorial: General inquiries: [email protected] idea of home and one that is deteriorating. +354 540 3600 / [email protected] Haukur’s 19th Editorial They are all taken this past summer in Advertising: Founders: “No comment” Rhode Island, USA, one of the places that +354 540 3605 / [email protected] Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson, Publisher: was home to me in my adolescence. Hörður Kristbjörnsson, I have nothing to say for now. There +354 540 3601 / [email protected] Jón Trausti Sigurðarson, is enough editorialising in this issue JS Oddur Óskar Kjartansson, Publisher: Valur Gunnarsson already. Seriously, it’s packed – go read it. Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson Like in our first issue of 2009, we tried to [email protected] The Reykjavík Grapevine is published 18 assemble a large cast of folks to comment times a year by Fröken ltd. Monthly from on what just happened, and what it Editor: November through April, and fortnightly means for them. Haukur S Magnússon from May til October. Nothing in this [email protected] The opinions expressed are not magazine may be reproduced in whole or opinions of the Reykjavík Grapevine – a in part without the written permission of Journalist: the publishers. The Reykjavík Grapevine magazine can’t really have opinions, is Catharine Fulton / [email protected] is distributed around Reykjavík, Akureyri, the Grapevine’s opinion – but they are all Egilsstaðir, Selfoss, Keflavík, Ísafjörður and honest opinions, formed by good, honest Contributing Writers: at key locations along road #1, and all major people. And they make for a damn good Sigurður K Kristinsson tourist attractions and tourist information Haukur Már Helgason centres in the country. read. Go find out for yourselves – the Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl paper should contain enough material to Valur Gunnarsson You may not like it, but at least it's not keep you occupied well into 2011. Bob Cluness sponsored. (No articles in the Reykjavík Now, I am going to go lie in some Paul F Nikolov Grapevine are pay-for articles. The opinions corner and whine about Icesave for Sindri Eldon expressed are the writers’ own, not the Egill Helgason advertisers’). a while. Happy New Year, thanks for Marc Vincenz everything, keep on truckin’, free Ragnar Jón Hrólfsson Mumia, jamming is brilliant; so long Ingi F. Vilhjálmsson and thanks for all the fish. Editorial Intern: Sophia Van Treeck / [email protected]

Food Editor: Sari Peltonen

On-line News Editor Paul Nikolov [email protected]

Comic | Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir presents:

MUSIC Kimono & NIGHT Tomorrow LIFE

kimono TRACK OF THE ISSUE Download the track of the issue Download your at www.grapevine.is free copy at grapevine.is Local alt-rock legends kimono certainly scored a lot of points in a lot of places with their latest release, Easy Music For Difficult People (available RIGHT NOW from your favourite record store or through gogoyoko via Kimi Records!). The album received critical acclaim pretty much everywhere it was reviewed, and topped several year-end list (including some you may read in this very issue); the Our resident comic artist, Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir, is currently teaching a group of awesome teenagers a course on the art of creating comix. We general verdict seems to be that EMFDP is kimono’s most consistently rewarding offering yet. thought it would be a great idea to run the best of her students’ output in our issues. For this issue, we welcome Alfreð Hrafn to the ranks of GV Lucky you, then, that the band has agreed to donate one of the album’s premier compositions comic artists. Alfreð is a pretty cool guy, he was born in 1997 and his favourite comics come from the DC Comics imprint. We might add that he as our free track of the month. The track is exemplary of EPM4D and its gratifying soundscapes - has been drawing comix for the last three years. Welcome aboard, Alfreð! hear for yourself and download it now!

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Authorised by BSÍ Bus Terminal / 101 Reykjavík / 580 5400 / [email protected] / www.re.is Icelandic Tourist Board We're not gonna lie to you: we really love us some beers. Some folks would call it a problem, but beer never gave Sour grapes us any problems. In fact, over the years, it's solved most of 'em. A frosty glass of cold, frothy, bubblicious, golden- tinted beer has consistently failed to let us down. In the and stuff immortal words of Homer J. Simpson: "Mmm... Beer..." Say your piece, voice your opinion, Now, since we're real pleasant and giving folks here send your letters to at the Grapevine, we thought we'd share some of that [email protected] wonderful FREYJA BEER with you, our readers. Until the end of days (or our FREYJA-sponsorship program, whichever comes first), we will reward oneMOST EXCELLENT LETTER with a case of the Freyja. You read right. A full case of Freyja. At your disposal. For drinking 4 (and did we mention that Freyja is pretty much our Letters favourite beer these days? Because it is. No lie!).

Dear Grapevine, I am grieved at the way Iceland is being MOST AWESOME LETTER: treated. I cannot believe that if Scotland had its Hello Haukur, independence and its own voice, we would treat As a person interested in the financial fate of Iceland, as we all are, may I be so bold as to a neighbour and friend in this way. outline a possible solution to the present crisis: Use the big green houses to grow high grade My wife and I have happy memories of marijuana. our fortnight in Hafnarfjörður. We exchanged Yes, it sounds like a joke, but I am actually quite serious. The government would have to houses and vehicles with an Icelandic family pass a bill to legalise the stinky weed, and we would have to employ some of those jail birds and we visited the interior of your great coun- who have recently had their harvests confiscated for their knowledge and skills. try. I am not a cannabis smoker and I do not personally condone drug taking of any kind. I do Maybe one day we will work together in a believe there are health risks and possibly some psychological risks associated with smoking Northern Alliance with Iceland, Greenland, cannabis... we could get into a long debate about why alcohol is legal, but that is not the point the Faroes and our other Scandinavian neigh- of this proposal. bours and friends. And away from Brussels With this proposal, we simply advertise Iceland as a 'Free Weed State' and sell bags of and London. Northern Lights to the tourists. I am confident that tourism will double and the sales of the Your readers might want to pay a friendly weed will undoubtedly put the country on the road to recovery quicker than you could say 'Skin viisit to our best Independence for Scotland up'. web site: http://www.scottishdemocratical- Alternatively, we could just sell chunks of our nature to foreign power companies so there liance.org.uk/ is no nature left for our children. I am hopeful that this idea will be taken seriously, but I am afraid it will only be met with Yours sincerely, fearful closed minds who think that it is the devil's weed and that it will start raining fire and Michael Hamilton brimstone. Let's face it, it probably will rain fire and brimstone anyway. Many thanks for taking the time to read this, if you are in the neighborhood and fancy a Dear Michael, cup of tea, just pop by. Thank you for your letter. We are happy to hear you enjoyed your fortnight in Hafnarfjörður, TaDa and working in a Northern Alliance with you Tony Scots sounds hella cool – every single Scotsman I’ve ever shared a pint with has been real cool Hey Tony, (btw – do you know Olaf Furniss? Tall hand- y’know, in all seriousness, this might actually be a pretty good idea you’re espousing here. some guy, curly mass of hair. He is awesome!). There’s not a fucking chance in hell it’ll be entertained by the powers that be for even a second, Have your people contact mine, keep your law- but that’s the case with most novel ideas anyway. yer on the line – let’s do this! One often wonders what would happen if we made cannabis legal overnight. Our experi- ence with how Icelanders take to fads and novelties leads us to imagine that the whole country Hello, i was reading your latest paper with the would be stoned out of its collective mind for a month or so, before growing bored with it and information about the Icelandic santa's, a bit moving on to the next foot massage unit or yo-yo or something. It’s hard to imagine a lot of child friendly but ok. About Giljagaur, there cannabis-causalities hopelessly laying around like driftwood all over 101. Alright, your idea just is an adult translation for that, "að gilja konu won you some beer. We hope you’re happy. If uhm... the government reads this and decides to nágrannans" means to do your neighbors wife. go for it, we’ll happily give you a second one. It is the old meaning of the word. Any way thought you wanted to know, keep up the good work. people, culture, language. We are trying to the devil’s weed is highly illegal in Iceland. Or learn Icelandic, but it is tough going (we'll get maybe at Tony’s house – he seems into it. Jón Helgi there though). Also, any place that would successfully We just want to be able to get by in conver- amplify the effects cannabis smoking is likely Dear Jón Helgi, sation, and understand what is being said. far removed from any place you can purchase thank you so much for passing on this perti- Anyway, I wanted to thank you guys for what ‘munchies’? In fact, you shouldn’t be smoking nent information. Does this then mean that you do throughout the year. Here's wishing you anything at all. You should seek help with the Giljagaur wants all our wives? Or our neigh- all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! good lord Jesus and try and come to terms with bours wives? That certainly changes our view Cheers! who you are. of the guy. That said, we are told that Öskjuhlíð can be al- Paul H right if you’re staying in the city. There’s even a Dear Grapevine, Reykjavík gas station nearby that sells pylsur with shrimp I wanted to drop you all a quick line or two Hey Paul, salad on them, and that nice chili ketchup. to thank you for another year of publications. you did what now with your iPhone cal- Downtown Hostel When we are in Iceland we are always sure to endar? And the summerhouse and the what Dear Sir, pick up a print copy. Even though we are stuck now? Who’s in the UK? Where are my pants!?! There are an awful lot of citizens of other in Gettysburg, PA, USA, for most of the time, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!??? western countries who will be very happy at the we can still download the PDF version. This Professional, friendly Anyway. Thank you for your letter dude. decision of your president. We feel that our gov- year I caught up with all the back-catalogue of It’s always nice to learn someone’s reading the ernments have sold out to financial interests at issues, so I have them all in a directory on my and passionate. stuff we’re writing (or at least looking at it in a the cost of the everyday citizen. Iceland could Mac's hard-drive. I have just had time, in be- thoughtful manner), in fact, it’s triple-nice. It’s help show the rest of us by not lying down to tween holiday preparations etc., to take a quick also good to hear you’ve scored yourselves a intimidation and threat. We’ll be here, to arrange the look at the Christmas special. The Encyclope- summerhouse. Keep on keepin’ on! dia of Icelandic Holidays... terrific! I will have most exciting excursions at Pat Ruane to transpose that onto my iPhone calendar so I Dear Grapevine, Cork, Rep. of Ireland the best price, and offer you can stay current. what are the best places to smoke weed in Our next trip over to Iceland is just days local advice on how to get Iceland? that is to say, the places to most suc- Dear Pat, away. We are taking possession of our new the most from your stay in cessfully and fully enjoy and perhaps to even This is an interesting point you raise. Initially summer house, ironically in the dead of winter. amplify the effects of a good toke of Iceland's we were devastated by our president’s decision, this wonderful city. We fell in love with Iceland just over three years finest agricultural product. as we were frankly just fucking sick of the whole ago. A decision to try and buy a summer house and heck, while you're humoring me, what Icesave debate and hoping to get on with stuff was made well before the Kreppa. Our dream are the best places to satisfy ones munchies af- in 2010. But it’s clear there are many interest- of owning one became possible, due to the ex- ter wards? ing sides to this whole debate, and the one you change rate. This year we took three trips over High Tidings, point out is perhaps turning out to be the most in order to make it a reality. We are so excited. anon engaging one. The everyday citizen has indeed Originally we stopped over on our way to taken the backseat to financial interests for far the UK, where most of my family resides. Dear anon (if that IS your real name), too long. So thank you for pointing that out. We just fell in love with Iceland as a place. Since we suggest doing it at your house, as it toking then we have, in turn, fallen in love with the

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Take the brochure with you and plan a fantastic time in Iceland with us! The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 6 2009: Politics & Life

2009 | Andri Snær Magnason, Writer News | Paul Nikolov On The Brink Of Something The Year In Brief A lot of people had expectations stripe suited men in their Range Rovers run PRESENTS that we would see new political everything into the ground, still a lot of us feel January parties or MPs that would be dif- that companies should be run by exactly these January will be most ferent; there were expectations of men, as if they are somehow—despite what memorable for the an immediate revolution in our mindset, that all experience has taught us—the best at running protests in front of of the sudden we would see a new humanity, companies? It doesn’t matter a thing that they Alþingi that raged on free from corruption, partisanism and political are responsible for some of the biggest failures Austurvöllur through- cliques. This did not happen. in human history. out the month, as Ice- In many ways, 2009 was still an interest- It took Icelanders a hundred years to re- landers furious at the ing year. People were very open to ideas and alise they wanted freedom. One hundred collapse of the banks the National Assembly of November, which years of poems and resolutions and articles to demanded that the the media tried to talk down as if it intended understand that a poor man should have the coalition of the conser- to present a plan to right everything, instead same power to vote as the rich man. I hope our vative Independence 2K9 of accepting its findings as a gift or a contribu- current shift in attitude doesn’t take a hundred Party and the Social Democrats step down. tion to our discourse, which it was. years, but the situation now is similar to what it Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde resigned Round Up Through Silfur Egils we heard a lot of peo- was in the beginning of the 19th century. Our that month, and an emergency coalition ple that offered solutions, words of warning or whole system came crashing into the arms of consisting of the Leftist-Greens and the prophecies. "If you do this, you will go bank- the state, and it was suddenly the nation’s task Social Democrats was formed. Almost liter- Bonanza rupt and Iceland will be a pariah nation, if you to decide what to do with it. But before people ally on his way out the door, then Minister do the exact opposite you will go immediately realised what had happened, they grew up- of Fisheries Einar K. Guðfinnsson legalised bankrupt... " set with all this new power and decided they whale hunting, adding yet another example Extravaganza With dramatic outcries like that on both didn’t want it, that it was communistic of them of conservatives leaving a mess behind for sides, it became hard for the public to sense to have all these powers. Thus it was deemed others to clean up. what really mattered. This is among the rea- the best solution to write off the debt and hand sons why big and important issues that one the power again to the men and their Range February Madness! would have liked to participate in and debate, Rovers. Iceland's new govern- like Icesave and so many others, wound up in 2009 was thus the year that the people re- ment garnered inter- firmly in party lines and died there. The dual- ceived all the power but didn’t want it, didn’t national attention for “What Stood Out, Then?” istic form every issue was forced into made it know to use the opportunity to do something a number of reasons. impossible for the public that will be affected historic—to handle things differently—the po- Within Scandinavia by them to participate. litical class couldn’t muster up the energy to As the year drew to a close, Grapevine flipped through mostly, the talk fo- On the other hand, this was maybe the do something idealistic, because they were cused on how this was its stuffed contacts list and sent out a bunch of e-mails, year of the virtual kreppa. Just as the bubble just focusing on clearing the rubble. the first leftist govern- that preceded the collapse had grown im- What really happened last year, then, made a bunch of calls, to people we thought could ment in Iceland's his- mense, the kreppa sort of grew into its own was that every large business in the country tory. Elsewhere, media bubble. It wasn’t nearly as grave as the inter- fell into the hands of the banks, who in turn provide us with an interesting take on 2009—what they outlets were more national media and many locals depicted it to were turned over to the state. We could have interested in Prime Minister Jóhanna Sig- learned, what happened, why, when, where and how? be. Our birth rates went up, while mortality experimented, tried new things; we could urðardóttir as the first openly gay head of rates stood still—in the scope of human history have thrown a national assembly on how to And how. state in modern times. On the home front, it is unusual that such a period is thought of as run these businesses, and where they went Icelandic corporation Baugur applied to one of hardship. wrong in the first place, we could have de- enter the "moratorium" process in Reykja- We are still on the brink of something, cided how to run our society. But no such idea We gave those folks free reign, pretty much, inviting vik, which offers protection from creditors. though. If the kreppa reached a low point was entertained. ASÍ [Icelandic Confederation Meanwhile, whale hunting drew perhaps our correspondents to talk about what they wanted. We in 2009, it wasn’t a kreppa strictly speaking, of Labour] rather wanted a new aluminium more ire from Icelanders than ever be- rather an important change. But time will tell. smelter and entered into an agreement with imagined all these good folks put together might help fore, as whale watching groups and labour Right now we are experiencing a lot of the people that caused all the chaos, the neo- unions deplored the practice. The month us learn what it meant to be an Icelander in 2009; read- impatience regarding political transformation, libertarian advocates of SA [Confederation of closed on a happy note, though, as then and I think a lot of it has unrealistic grounds. Icelandic Employers]. ing through the results, we can’t help but agree with Central Bank chairman Davíð Oddsson was Such transformations happen over decades, From this perspective, 2009 was clearly forced to resign from his post. ourselves. There are some pretty hefty, eye-opening time has told. a year of disappointment. We have a labour There are positive aspects that raise my movement that has no ideological imagination thoughts expressed right here. hopes. We can observe some tightly knit or vision. They prefer focusing on unemploy- March grassroots foundation being formed; Data- ment rates—as if Iceland were a chicken farm, In this month, the In- market is proposing principles of public trans- not a community—measuring our productivity ternational Monetary Some people wrote us long letters (such contributions parency and the National Assembly calls for a in tonnes while ignoring the ideologies and Fund (IMF) began to can be identified by a cool looking envelope-symbol), more active and direct democracy. Regardless methods that caused those unemployment stretch its roots into of how these experiments fare in the long run, rates. They are prepared to hand over our re- Iceland, as it adver- and some of them we called and sorta interrogated on we can still see a large base of grassroots op- sources to reckless people, as long as a thou- tised for applicants what they had to say (these are marked with an old- erators forming, one that has been shaping up sand workers can get short-term employment. in its then soon-to- over the last decade. They may have temporary success in creating be-opened Icelandic school telephone image). All of them had interesting You could say that in certain ways the situ- jobs, but if they do not change their modes of office. Talks about joining the European things to say about the year 2009 and the community we ation now is akin to that of1809, when Jörun- thinking we are destined to go full circle, while dur Hundadagakonungur [“The dog days losing our natural resources and along with Union began to gather inhabit, whether they amount to complaints, condemna- king”] arrived in Iceland and gave Icelanders them, our future employment opportunities. steam, as foreign media suggested in nu- the gift of freedom, something that everyone Basic statistics tell us this: we bring ashore merous op-eds that such a move could tions, revelations or (in at least one case) exonerations. should have been rather pleased with. He of- 1–1.5% of all fish that is caught in the world. only benefit the country. Most Icelanders fered freedom and a draft that said every man This alone should be enough to comfortably remained opposed to the idea. Fox News, was equal. His message was immensely radi- sustain a nation of 300.000. We play a very always quick to push people's fear buttons, Not all of the people we contacted responded, and not cal for the times, even more radical than the large part in feeding the world, and doing it warned Americans not to travel to Iceland all of those who responded were willing to share their French Revolution. It appealed to the 90% of well is a big and important task. We welcome because the people here are “very, very an- the country that were devoid of property, liv- more tourists per person per year than most gry”, while adding, “Single guys, there's a thoughts (we are especially annoyed that so few of our ing in poverty. Yet the people laughed at his nations in the world, and that alone should go lot of hot women, all broke. So you might female friends were up for the task—it feels kinda shitty advances. “What does he mean, all men are a long way towards sustaining our society. We have a shot." Proving that Fox News is as equal?” produce five times more energy per person classy as it is journalistically accurate. to present the year from a mostly male perspective). At that time, our officials said that no true than most of our neighbouring countries— Nevertheless, we feel that the following commentary Icelander desired independence. Jón Sigurðs- again, that alone should comfortably sustain son was but a baby, as was the Icelandic inde- us, yet we still manage to mess it up. combines to provide a unique perspective on the messy pendence movement. However, if we don’t squander away all of It seems we are going through the same these posts, we should be able to recover from year we just left behind, and what may lie ahead. Enjoy! course of events now. We’ve seen the pin- our current problems relatively fast.

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Léttöl The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 8 2009: Politics & Life

Breaking News | Icesave Opinion | Ingi F. Vilhjálmsson, Journalist News | Paul Nikolov A Year Of Reckoning The Year In Brief

One word in particular can be The most notorious aspect of the business April used to sum up the atmosphere model of the Icelandic oligarchs is the incred- The music hall in Reyk- in Icelandic society in the year ible amount of money they borrowed from the javík, which had been 2009. That word is: reckoning. Icelandic banks—banks they themselves often delayed construction During the past year there has been a owned large stakes in. since the previous fall, political and a moral reckoning taking place in The bankrupt holding company Baugur, for managed to land an Iceland. This reckoning has been the effect of example, leaves a debt of more than 300 bil- agreement for funds the catastrophic economic collapse that hap- lion Icelandic krónur. While Milestone, another to continue construc- pened on the island in the autumn of 2008. bankrupt holding company, owes around 100 tion. Protests against The most important element of this reck- billion krónur that were mostly borrowed from the Ministry of Justice, oning was the pseudo-revolution that took the bank Glitnir, which the company partly calling for changes to place in Iceland in January. This revolution led owned. Then there is Exista, tottering on the refugee law, began to to the end of the coalition government of the brink of bankruptcy. Exista was the biggest gather momentum. Squatters occupying Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) creditor and shareholder of Kaupthing bank. vacant houses in the city (which were ac- and the Social Democrats (Samfylkingin). Most of these debts will be written off by their tually owned and slated for demolition to Following the premature end of this coali- creditors, since the loans were either unse- make way for larger, more modern build- tion, Samfylkingin formed a temporary, minor- cured or the assets used to secure them—most ings) battled with police throughout the ity government with the left-wing party Vinstri commonly the shares in the banks—are now month. Parliamentary elections held at the Græn (Leftist-Greens) until elections were worthless. end of the month saw the emergency co- held in April, where these two parties received The sky-high loans to these large hold- alition of the Social Democrats and Leftist- a majority to form a new coalition government. ing companies only form one side of an even Greens voted into power with a majority of This left-wing government was historical in murkier tale, since smaller companies and 34 of 63 seats. the sense that it was for the first time since Ice- individuals could often get loans from the land received its independence from Denmark Icelandic banks without putting forward any May Iceland's President Trolls Europe in 1944 that a left-wing, majority government pledges. In many cases these companies and The month began had been formed. individuals received these so-called “bul- with a visit from David Here we go again... This was interpreted as the consequence let loans” because the banks offered them to Lynch, who pledged to of the reckoning with the right wing policies the customers or the employees of the banks. usher in an era of great of Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn, which many believed They did not stand a chance of losing anything good fortune by teach- Our illustrious president, Ólafur Ragnar might be an excellent example of "be were one of the main causes of the Icelandic if they decided to take the loans: The only party ing Icelanders all about “Epic Lulz” Grímsson, decided to purge careful what you wish for" regret. At the economic collapse of 2008. who took any risk was the bank itself. Transcendental Medi- himself of his reputation as Icelandic same time, another Gallup shows that This interpretation entails the belief that Ordinary, everyday Icelanders did not have tation. Financial Times Venture Capitalist Cheerleader Numero 67% of Icelanders would rather see the the collapse had been caused by a small group access to loans like these, and it has made journalist and novelist Uno and vetoed the Icesave bill, thereby government create a new Icesave law for of greedy, immoral oligarchs that had bought them angry to learn all the stories about the Roger Boyes releases refering the bill to national referendum. parliament to vote on, rather than create up most of Icelandic companies and been al- business practices of the banks and oligarchs, his book “Meltdown The president, citing among his rea- a national referendum. For the average lowed to mismanage them in a reckless way. and how common they had become prior to Iceland,” covering the bank collapse on The financial deregulation and the hands-off the collapse. This has led these people—cer- sons the overwhelming opposition to the Icelander, a referendum isn't the point; a the overheating of the economy. Iceland's policies of the government of Sjálfstæðisflok- tain businessman and bankers—to be consid- bill in two separate opinion polls, and the new deal is. new government reaches an agreement kurinn, as well as a very weak financial ser- ered as public enemies number one in Iceland to, among other things, apply for Iceland's 50,000 signatures on an online petition I would be remiss if I didn't mention vices authority, allowed these oligarchs to run over the past year, and it is almost certain that admission to the EU. Refugee issues con- calling for the bill's veto, issued a state- a point that some in the foreign media wild and do as these pleased, and were under- some of these people will serve prison time for tinued to stay in the media, as protests ment, saying in part, “It is my sincere seem to have overlooked - even if a ref- stood as being the consequence of the crude the crimes they committed. continued, including at least one hunger hope that this decision will lead to perma- erendum does kill the Icesave law, this type of capitalist ideology that Sjálfstæðisflok- So the reckoning I initially mentioned is, strike. Unemployment reached a peak in nent reconciliation and prosperity for the DOES NOT mean that we are not going kurinn had implemented during its eighteen first and foremost, a reckoning between the this month, as 12,000 Icelanders became people of Iceland, at the same time laying to pay. It means that we are going to re- years in power. general public of Iceland, the people who did either unemployed or under-employed. the foundations for good relations with negotiate. No matter what side of this is- However, the followers of Sjálfstæðisflok- not belong to the economic or the political elite Iceland also managed to win second place kurinn argued that the collapse of the Icelan- and who cannot be blamed for the collapse, all other nations and by the way I TROLL sue you're on, it's an important point to in the Eurovision Song Contest, thanks to dic economy did not show that capitalism was except indirectly at most, and the people who UUUU LOLOLLOLO :D:D:D:D:D !!!11!” drive home. Jóhanna Guðrún and her song “Is It True?” bad, but only that the particular capitalists that governed the country into the mess it is cur- Parliament resumed. The veto comes at a strange time, to Also of note: the conservatives – who bought up Iceland had not properly used the rently entrenched in. say the least. Forgotten was the Prime fought long and hard for the bill's defeat freedom granted to them by the capitalist poli- As I write this, it is not foreseeable what June Minister's own conditions to Gordon – don't actually want the president to have cies of Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn. It had therefore the end result of this reckoning will be, since The Dalai Lama visited not been shown, they claimed, that capitalism the events that led to collapse are still be Brown, among them that the Icesave any veto powers, and have held that posi- Iceland, and told Ice- as such had failed in Iceland. Furthermore, looked into by the ‘Special Prosecutor’ hired deal would not be an admission of legal tion ever since one of their own bills was landers in attendance Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn could not take respon- to do so, and a special committee that is in- obligation, and that if the burden of pay- vetoed in 2004. The conservatives are at a lecture he gave sibility for the actions of the oligarchs even vestigating it from a more academic, analytical ment proved too much to bear, Iceland also not that crazy about national refer- that he has optimism though the party had been the political entity standpoint. Icelanders can only rest assured would expect re-negotiations with the UK endums, having strongly opposed them about the future of Ti- most responsible for the creation of the system that the answer to the question: “What hap- bet. The initial Icesave and Holland. The Icesave law was never with regards to the Kárahnjúkar dam that collapsed. pened and who will be punished for it?” has deal was approved, meant to be written in stone, yet the veto project, and the Iraq War. A source close Whoever is right, there was this strong been and is being looked into. But we are a immediately sparking seems to pretend that it was. to the Social Democrats that the Grape- reckoning between right wing and left wing pretty long way from having a satisfactory an- protests inside and Despite the veto, it should be noted vine spoke to said that the bill's defeat politics during the year. Currently the left is swer. That will probably take years; the reck- outside of parliament. Tourism continued to winning, since the left-wing parties form the oning has only just begun. that a) there are no laws on how a national was actually the last thing the opposition climb as foreigners took advantage of the present government. But that might change referendum is conducted (although at the wanted – now they'll have to deal with the depressed currency. Renowned corrup- since it is a historical anomaly for Iceland to Ingi F. Vilhjálmsson, is a journalist at the news- time of this writing, that is being worked possible negative economic consequenc- tion-hunter Eva Joly, who was appointed have a left-wing government in power and the paper DV in Reykjavík out, and a referendum could be held as es of the law's defeat by referendum. The by the Icelandic government to investigate polls show Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn is gaining soon as 20 February), and b) Article 26 referendum itself may cost about 200 mil- the causes of the bank collapse, began strength again. to speak publicly about her frustration in of the Icelandic constitution, which al- lion ISK. This may very well be their last This debate can be seen as one side of a dealing with Icelandic authorities. Former lows veto powers to the president, states shot at credibility. more general, moral discourse that has been Kópavogur mayor Gunnar I. Birgisson re- that a vetoed law is actually in effect until The one thing certain in the year to ongoing in Iceland, about the business meth- signed under charges of corruption and a referendum is held that defeats the law come: Icelanders sick of hearing about ods used by this small group of oligarchs; nepotism. by simple majority. The Prime Minister Icesave will have to live with the subject methods that most people agree were a part emphasized this point to the internation- for at least another year, not to mention of the cause of the economic collapse. al media, and has sworn that the ruling some of the grimmer results that could The general stance is that the condemna- coalition will hold, despite the set back. follow. tion of these methods is apolitical: Most peo- ple, right or left, agree that they are immoral One interesting bit of news: remem- and unjust. In this moral debate it has been the ber how 70% of the nation was opposed majority of the general public against the oli- to the Icesave deal? Yeah, well, now only PAUL NIKOLOV garchs who have tried to answer for their ways 41% agree with the president's veto. This HÖRÐUR SVEINSSON of doing business.

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Our kitchen is open The Culture House - Þjóðmenningarhúsið Opið daglega National Centre for Cultural Heritage kl. 11.00 – 17.00 to 23:30 on weekdays RESTAURANT- BAR Hverfi sgata 15, 101 Reykjavik Open daily between and 01:00 on weekends Vesturgata 3B | 101 Reykjavík Tel.: +354 545 1400, www.thjodmenning.is 11 am and 5 pm. Tel: 551 2344 | www.tapas.is The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 10 2009: Politics & Life

2009 | Egill Helgason, Political and Social Commentator

Cleaning Up The Mess: The Legacy Of The Pots And Pans Revolution

WORDS BY Egill Helgason PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA STAPLES ILLUSTRATIONS BY LÓA HJÁLMTÝSDÓTTIR

Noted political and social commentator Egill Helgason tional Theatre was literally mobbed to the letter, in fact it shares its power total debt is thought to be about 1.000 one night. The Social Democrats then with the IMF governors. Many of the billion ISK; he is surely one of those has hosted Iceland’s main political debate show, Silfur proceeded to form a government with hardest left-wingers in government who bankrupted the nation, but there Egils (now showing on RÚV, alongside his literary the socialist/environmental Left Green have been forced to change their ways; is talk that he might hold on to his su- party, which actually can trace some of they have even accepted an applica- permarkets if he manages to negotiate program Kiljan) for many years. Through his shows its origins all the way back to the Ice- tion to join the European Union, total his debt, which is only a fraction of the and his blog on local news aggregator Eyjan.is, he is landic Communist party that formed anathema to the Left Greens until re- mess he has left behind. undoubtedly a major influence on Icelandic discourse in 1930. cently. And most of the party has been And, to add insult to injury, Jón Ás- forced to campaign for the acceptance geir still controls most of the privately and is known for his sharp, often hard-hitting analyses of Icesave, the reimbursement by Ice- owned media in Iceland. of current affairs – especially in the aftermath of October landic taxpayers of money lost through savings accounts in several European 2008’s economic collapse. countries. For the next months, Egill Helgason will be writing “Cleaning up the mess,” is a phrase us a column detailing his take on and interpretation of that Sigfússon uses frequently. 3. Icesave... This is a word that in- A revolution devours its children. stills dread—and perhaps boredom— the preceding month’s events. The Grapevine is proud This can be said of the government into the hearts of Icelanders. Icesave and happy to welcome Egill as a contributor to the paper. that came into power through the pots has now been furiously debated for and pans revolution, which seemed more than a year. Originally this is We feel his insights will prove an exemplary contribution full of promise for a few months last the moniker—thought brilliant at the for international audiences and new Icelanders that are year but now looks weak and full of time—of savings accounts founded interested in following the local discourse on a deeper contradictions. It has three major prob- by Icelandic bank Landsbanki in the lems it has not managed to tackle: UK, Holland and Belgium. At the time level. 1. The terrible household debt, ag- foreigners had almost stopped lending Read RIGHT ON for his extended introductory gravated by the total collapse of the cur- money to the Icelandic banks, so they This is, at least on paper, the most rency, lowering of housing prices and devised a scheme: we will offer fabu- column, which should tell you some things about 2009, left wing government in Icelandic his- the strange Icelandic phenomenon of lous interest rates, and we will be able in the spirit of this issue. tory, referring to itself as a government loans being indexed to the rampant in- to fund ourselves by the money flow- of Nordic Welfare. The Prime Minister flation (while pay and savings are not). ing in. Later this month we will see the one- police brought out their teargas canis- is Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir—often re- 2. The question of what to do with year anniversary of the pots and pans ters—a turn of events unheard of in ferred to as Holy Jóhanna—chosen at the companies that have fallen into “And one day Icesave revolution that shook Reykjavík in Jan- Iceland. the time of the pots and pans revolu- the hands of the government and the uary of last year. This miniature revo- tion because she is thought to be incor- banks. Included are many of the na- just closed down, its web lution started peacefully, with people ruptible and is also a figurehead of wel- tion’s major companies, as well as the banging saucepans and cooking pots, fare politics. But it soon transpired that large holding companies that owned pages disappeared; at the but ended in street riots, fires and tear- the strong man of the government, the practically everything at the time of the Icesave offices no one gas. real fighter, is Steingrímur J. Sigfús- boom. All the latter companies are now As is often the case with revolu- son, Minister of Finance, the leader bankrupt, with a horrible ratio of debt. answered the phone. It tions, it was a small incident that of the Left Greens, a prematurely bald How do you redistribute the wealth sparked the events. country boy who entered parliament of a society that has collapsed? Even the was, in short, a scam." Parliament was reconvening after at a very young age in 1983. Sigfússon fishing industry, once again the pillar Christmas. Everybody expected it to has spent most of his political life as a of the economy, is riddled with debt, Except there was no backup plan. make a major effort on the crisis. But member of the opposition and many brought on by speculation with fishing If the Icelandic bank went bankrupt, the government of conservative Prime were waiting for him to retire—as is quotas where huge sums have disap- there was nobody to guarantee the Minister Geir Haarde was as ever dis- also the fact with Jóhanna Sigurðardót- peared into offshore accounts. deposits. The Icelandic insurance connected from the populace—now “Now we even have the tir. Despite its left-wing credentials fund was empty. And one day Icesave we even have the verb of "Haardering" verb of "Haardering" in the government seems to be set on just closed down, its web pages disap- in the Icelandic language, meaning doing this in a very old guardish way, peared; at the Icesave offices no one basically to keep your head in a pile of the Icelandic language, through the partially restructured answered the phone. It was, in short, a sand—so the parliament started the banks—now nominally in the hands scam. new year by discussing a bill proposed meaning basically to of foreign creditors—but in reality run Our neighbouring countries— by a young and rather silly politician of by Icelandic lawyers and economists, even our friendly Nordic neighbours— Haarde’s party, calling for alcohol to be keep your head in a pile many of whom are linked to the for- soon decided that it was up to Iceland- sold in supermarkets. mer elite, which was the problem in ers, our government and taxpayers, to Maybe a large issue for some, but of sand." the first place. reimburse the holders of these savings by most this was perceived as being accounts, individuals, municipalities, a symbol of how far the political class In Iceland it is referred to as a revolu- charities, up to a certain sum. Maybe had alienated itself from reality and, tion—"bylting" is the Icelandic word. It this is not unfair. But the sum of mon- with a peculiar mixture of liberalism surely toppled the government of Geir ey is so vast compared to the Icelandic and cronyism, handed power to cliques Haarde, which drifted with all senses But then, by this strange turn of economy that this might even spell of bankers and financiers, many of shut into the collapse of October 2008, events, he is now in the position of the doom for the recovery of the country, them originating in the grey zone be- all the time claiming that the problem most influential man in the govern- which, though proud and enterprising, tween politics and business. was rather one of image—a misunder- ment, the man who is everywhere, do- has the population of Wichita, Cardiff Icelanders, a nation more given to standing of the Icelandic economy— ing the fighting, putting out the fires, or Murmansk. grumbling than manning the barri- than substance. "Incompetent govern- cleaning up the mess, earning grudg- Icesave has dominated local politi- cades, were suddenly out in force, ex- ment" was a popular slogan during ing respect, but not necessarily becom- cal life since the collapse. For Iceland- pressing their total discontent with a these days. ing more popular. The most famous instance is Jón ers this has turned into a nightmare, political system that had led the nation The Social Democrats, a junior par- Maybe the government’s chosen Ásgeir Jóhannesson of Baugur fame, the feeling is a bit like in the film The down the way of ruin. The highpoint ty that had entered the coalition gov- slogan isn’t good enough. It is very dif- who in the heyday of the Icelandic Exterminating Angel by Luis Bunuel, of these events, just a year ago, was ernment with Haarde’s Independence ficult to dole out Nordic Welfare in a ‘venture Vikings’ owned many famous where a group of people are stuck in the burning of a huge Christmas tree, Party in 2007—The Independence country that is almost bankrupt. The brands on the high streets of London. a room without really understanding given to Reykjavik annually by the city Party having led the government ever government has in fact seen no other But this was built on his empire of why they cannot get out. of Oslo as a token of goodwill. since 1991—took fright after a party option but to follow the prescriptions supermarkets in Iceland, which his Shortly before New Year, Parlia- As the tree went up in flames, the meeting in the basement of the Na- of the International Monetary Fund family still has control of. Jón Ásgeir´s ment passed a bill saying we should The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 11 2009: Politics & Life

Politics | 2009 2009 | Haukur Már Helgason 2009 | Valur Gunnarsson, Journalist / Writer pay. This was the second bill, now re- ombudsman, the other a judge of the ferred to as Icesave 2, the first one hav- High Court who, as a law professor, The score of 2009 2009: The Year of Revolution ing been declined by the British and used to do a lot of work for the former the Dutch. At the time of writing, the government. The third is a relatively nation had just learned that President unknown Harvard-trained economist. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson declined The chairman of the committee signing the bill – thereby effectively was quoted last year as saying that he vetoing it and subjecting it to a national would have seriously bad news for the Prestissimo Ol’ Karl Marx said that history always repeats products. This is the promise of a new year. referendum. population. Even so, many dread that “Andóf” is Icelandic for resistance. As so much itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time It’s going to be a cold January once the the findings will be, maybe not a white- of Icelandic’s abstract vocabulary, it originates as farce. Commentators particularly loved re- credit card bills start coming in. Hopefully, wash, but that they will be so muddled among seafarers. Once an open boat had ar- peating that phrase after the collapse of the things will heat up a bit in February, when the as to be an endless source of interpreta- rived at its destination on open sea, and the Soviet Union. But this is Iceland. We do things long promised report on the reasons for the tion, strife and spin. sailors had laid their lines, two men in back differently. crises is due to be published. That might not Those who have most to lose from kept rowing against the stream to keep the Previously, the only event in Icelandic his- only be the fulfilment of the hopes of January the report have already organised boat put. Thus andóf is not meant to change a tory to be called a revolution took place in the 2009, but also the nation’s last hope for justice. themselves. In one of the most bizarre situation, but to work against a current for the summer of 1809. An English soap salesman If this too fails to deliver, we can expect sake of the status quo. and a Danish adventurer named Jorgen Jor- stories set in our times to be more tragic than twists Icelandic politics has seen, for- Most of last winter’s andófsmenn may not gensen came ashore in the midst of the Napo- farcical. mer PM, former Central Bank man- have wanted to simply support the status quo leonic Wars, took over the undefended island ger, the force behind the privatisation with their action, but that may be all the move- and announced that Iceland was now free and of the Icelandic bank system—and, ment did. Effectively, the protest movement’s independent and a national flag showing three some say, architect of the collapse it- demand now seems to have been: Stop us or fish on a blue field would be introduced along self, Davíð Oddsson—was made editor we might do something. And the state obeyed, with human rights and such. They were soon of Morgunblaðið, formerly the most did what it could to hold back a people scared escorted away by the Royal Navy and Jorgen prestigious newspaper in the country. of its own potential and called an election. was called the “Dog Day King” by bemused lo- As Grímsson pondered his move, In a matter of weeks the paper Through a change in government, the cals in honour of his roughly two months in of- News | Paul Nikolov republic held. So far, no constitutional con- fice. Over a century later, the event was turned he must surely have looked into the turned into a vehicle for Oddsson vention has been announced. The new gov- into a stage farce by Jónas Árnason. burden of debt, to the constitutional and his cronies, the subscribers dis- ernment is making some left-wing amend- The revolution of 2009 certainly had its The Year In Brief ramifications of his signature, but also appeared in droves and now little re- ments, reinforcing taxes on wealth that were farcical elements (singing, dancing, every- to his own legacy. Grímsson, a real po- mains of the old prestige. This is not abolished to make Iceland a ‘capitalist’s para- thing said by ex-PM Geir Haarde). But in the litical animal who used to be the chair- only a battle for political power, but also dise’ as one banker phrased it in his recent background was a national tragedy, eighteen July man of the socialist People’s Alliance for what will be written in the history memoirs. Fundamentally, though, everything years of economic mismanagement by the In- As support for the up to the early nineties, has managed books. remains the same: As soon as the banks, na- dependence Party which led to the economic initial Icesave deal to become the only president in the tionalised in autumn 2008, had been relieved collapse of 2008. waned, support for history of the Icelandic republic who is of their losses, the socialists re-privatised the the conservative Inde- profitable parts of their business—swiftly, even actively unpopular and a figure of ridi- After the Revolution pendence Party grew without hesitation. As 70% of Icelandic busi- Were the events of January 2009 a true revo- cule. Many of his sayings during the to being the strongest ness is de facto bankrupt, this means that pri- lution? Iceland seems, despite everything, to in the country. Parlia- boom years are now a source of embar- vate interest will determine their fate, and not have been pretty responsibly run for the past ment voted to apply for rassment and he and his wife, wealthy public interest—they are already beyond politi- year, which is in itself revolutionary. However, EU membership. Some socialite Dorrit Moussaief, are said to cal debate. no one is happy with the outcome. Inevitably, new cases of swine flu have become groupies of the finan- Adagio the Independence Party now blames the rul- were confirmed in Ice- ciers, the so-called 'venture Vikings’. Total national debt amounts to €28 billion. ing Left Coalition for the effects of the eco- land. A top-secret document neatly outlin- This is not incomprehensible, you only have to nomic collapse, conveniently forgetting that ing the identities of 205 international enti- divide with the population to realise the mean- the whole disaster happened on their watch. ties in receipt of individual loans exceeding ing of the figure: one way or another each of Now taxes must be raised and public spending €45 million (the largest of which totalling the country’s 300 some thousand inhabitants cut down. Everyone from sailors to filmmakers, €1250 million) from Kaupþing was leaked to must donate € 96 thousand worth to pay these parents to seniors, denounce the government the internet July 29th via WikiLeaks. What then about the legacy of the debts. Of these, € 37 thousand will be collect- as each group must in turn suffer cuts, blam- pots and pans revolution? ed from each by the state, through taxation, ing the one pulling the trigger rather than the August In a way, it reminds one of T.E. Law- cuts in services and other measures, while the one who loaded and aimed the gun. The Ministry of For- rence, who in the early pages of The rest will be privately collected, through higher Many of the leading protesters of January eign Affairs signed Seven Pillars of Wisdom talks about prices, lower wages—any means of exploita- have already left the country while the main ar- an agreement with the fate of his own revolt in the desert. tion will do. In a country with no tradition of chitect of the collapse, former PM Davíð Odds- Chinese authorities to The old guys came back and stole the sacrificial ceremonies, co-dependency with son, is busy rewriting history as the new editor take part in the EXPO the debt holders is likely to become a silent, of Morgunblaðið. The same people who bank- revolution. After the burning of the 2010 in Shanghai, and shameful part of everyday existence, breeding rupted the country are still largely in charge of Oslo Christmas tree things quickly parliament continued contempt and resentment. their indebted business empires. On the face fell back into place. Parliamentary elec- to cobble away at Ic- Financial minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon of it, little has changed. esave. Not a really tions were held, and the old political may very well be right that ‘Iceland will get out eventful month, except Indeed, shortly after news of his parties—the ‘four parties’ as they are of this,’ thanks to what is often mislabelled as The Rainbow Revolution for the fact that the veto (and subsequent news of harsh called in Iceland—basically held out. ‘hard work morals’ but is better described as And yet, something did happen in January normally reserved Prime Minister wrote a reactions by Dutch and UK govern- We got a left-wing government but it is a tradition of obedience. Whereas the right 2009. Not quite like Red October 1917 or the column for the Financial Times. There she ments), loud and strongly worded calls not doing things very differently from wing employs analogies with seafaring, Sig- first Bastille Day in 1789, but something of said that Icelanders were willing to make for his resignation had already started what the old government would do. Ice- fússon refers to farming: the farmers thought consequence nonetheless. Perhaps it can best sacrifices to rebuild the economy, but be compared to the colour-coded revolutions echoing through local discourse. land is subject to a strict IMF program; they could spend their days on the town! There added, “Iceland will not be deterred from exists another left, which never adhered to in Eastern Europe, where people rose peace- Grímsson's veto might spell the end most of the government’s moves are resolving issues that stand in the way of the cause of making everyone a worker, but fully to eject elected leaders who were doing of the present left-wing government— forced. economic reconstruction at home and con- in freedom, as the opposite of forced labour. the country harm and could not be gotten rid fidence-building abroad. It is to be hoped ironically, as he comes from the left Icesave has yet to boil into riots. Up un- There also exist honest people in the right- of in any other way. that the people of large countries such as wing himself—but it might also turn til now the protests in front of parlia- wing constituency who really thought that The people of Iceland showed, for once, the UK and the Netherlands are aware of into a constitutional crisis as Icesave ment have been muted; the strongest capitalism meant hard work would bring re- that they could and would take matters into the lasting impact their governments can goes back and forth from the govern- sign of protest being a list of signatures wards. Both groups are now disillusioned to their own hands. Everything that has hap- have on small countries such as ours at a ment, to the parliament and then to the against Icesave 2 with a sizable part of the point of apathy. At the end of a messy year, pened since has been a direct consequence of time of great distress.” president, hitherto a symbolic figure in the electorate putting their names on in a heap of stale words, this one thing remains January. The election of a new Icelandic gov- clear: no matter who is in charge, a great num- ernment last spring, following Obama’s oath of the vein of the Scandinavian monarchs it. Taxes have been raised on the bet- September ber of Iceland’s inhabitants will be consider- office on the very day the Icelandic Revolution in their Lego palaces. ter off—very few people are really rich Iconic Icelandic pro- ably less free to choose what to do with their started, inspired hope of a brave new world for tester Helgi Hóseas- in post-collapse Iceland—so we might time for at least the next decade or two, than many. son died at the age of “Grímsson, a real yet see the upper classes coming down they would have been if that psychotic mon- Then, everything got bogged down. Over 89. The shadowy group to rattle their jewellery down in Aus- ster neoliberalism hadn’t run amok. here it was Icesave, whereas Obama has had known as Skapofsi political animal who turvöllur square, in front of Alþingi. Rubato to spend most of his time arguing with reluc- continued to vandalize It was not the collapse that was catastrophic, tant countrymen about the benefits of health This doesn’t seem likely, though. the homes of Iceland's used to be the chairman but the build-up and the blindness. A coun- care rather than changing the world with For now, the nation seems rather set- captains of finance. try blindly adhered to the outrageous dogma broad strokes. tled in its grumbling ways; a cloud of The Skapofsi group is of the socialist People’s that if money only had its way, good things depression and discontent hovers over still at large and oc- would follow. Whatever would not come about The Big Squeeze the country. But mood changes can casionally sends out Alliance up to the through sheer monetary magic would then be By December, the beacons of hope that were messages with photos of its latest con- be swift in this Nordic place where the taken care of by the inherent greatness of Ice- lit (and frequently extinguished by police) on quests. Political party Civic Movement was early nineties, has arctic night now holds the reins. This is landers, by way of racial magic. The economic Austurvöllur last January had grown ever dim- forced to re-invent itself after an embar- a great change from the silly euphoria collapse merely unveiled the scale of the in- mer. The biggest surprise of the aftermath rassing inter-party e-mail was leaked to the managed to become the of the boom years, with all its imagined tended exploitation. of the revolution was not that people felt let media, revealing back-talking and bicker- Protestors stood up to the shame of the down. Expectations are raised and not every- victories on the stage of global finance. ing that ultimately led to MP Þráinn Ber- only president in the past decade and helped cover up the gap of thing can be changed overnight. Nor was it all Many now say that the best we can do is telsson leaving the party altogether. But the impossibility by bringing about an election. that surprising that the Independence Party to keep on fishing and churning out al- top story of the month was former Central history of the Icelandic Through a quixotic effort the andófsmenn has largely succeeded in rewriting history to uminium from our smelters; that this Bank chairman and legendary conserva- kept the island in place. As acceptance sets in their own benefit. As the name implies, this is is a good enough vision for the future. tive politician Davíð Oddsson being named republic who is actively and words lose their effectiveness, the volun- precisely what they do best. No, the biggest the co-editor of newspaper Morgunblaðið, Even the IMF talks about Iceland being tary leaders of last winter’s uprising turn into surprise came in the run up to Christmas, while over 40 journalists were fired from the unpopular and a figure a production economy for a long time, nagging eccentrics again. The new captain’s when shopping seemed as busy as ever. With paper. The move gained international atten- while debts are being paid. promises to distribute the rowing demanded prices at a record high, rising unemployment, tion, scorn from journalist unions at home of ridicule." But, it has to be admitted, that for from each fairly, according capabilities. To tax increases and wage cuts, this should be and abroad, and cancelled subscriptions by make new oars for those who have none. That the most expensive Christmas yet for punters. the young people of this country this the hundreds. The moment of truth should come seems to be a rather gloomy outlook. the sailors will be kept alive and breeding. That But that did not deter them. Even before the on February 1st, when a special com- their offspring will be nurtured and taught to collapse, Icelanders had to pay more than any- one else for most products, and yet its con- mittee, appointed by Alþingi, will row as well. And so, those with oars keep on rowing, rattling their oars to celebrate the New sumerism was unparalleled. Now they have deliver a 1.500 page report on the col- Year beneath fireworks in the fog. An Icesave to pay even more. With longer working hours lapse. The members of the committee approaches on larboard, please steer past it, than most countries, I had always assumed are still held in a measure of respect will you … that Icelanders were being squeezed to the by the public, but it must be noted that What else happened in 2009? Michael limit. It must have come as a pleasant surprise two of them are also members of the Jackson died. His Neverland ranch was dis- to the happy few who control the monopolies old guard: one being the parliamentary solved and auctioned, too. to see their countrymen can be squeezed quite a bit more. Longer hours, worse pay, pricier MUSIC CONCERTS & NIGHTLIFE IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY

Prescribing with love Dubliner Salurinn 22:30 Live Music. 21:00 Dalvík’s Men’s Choir with music for your live Óliver Matti Matt and Rock Band: Queen 22:00 Live Karaoke with Raggi and The Beatles. experience Troubadour. Sódóma Prikið 22:00 The Global Battle Of The How to use the listings 22:00 DJ Gauti. Bands SEMI-FINALS. Venues are listed alphabetically by day. Thorvaldsen For complete listings and detailed 13 22:00 Live DJs. information on venues visit WED www.grapevine.is 16 Austur SAT 21:00 Live Jazz. 8 Café Rósenberg Austur FRI 22:00 South River Band. 22:00 Live DJs. Dubliner B5 Austur 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Live DJs. 22:00 Live DJs. Sódóma Bar 11 B5 22:00 The Global Battle Of The 22:00 Matti. 22:00 Live DJs. Bands SEMI-FINALS. Café Rósenberg Bar 11 22:00 Tom and Clave. 22:00 Matti. 14 Celtic Cross Café Rósenberg THU 01:00 Live Music. 22:00 Mogadon. Cultura Celtic Cross 22:00 House DJs. 01:00 Live Music. Bar 11 22:00 Kreppa Night. Beer for 450 Dubliner Cultura ISK. 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 House DJs. Dubliner Cultura English Pub 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 House DJs. 23:00 Live Music. English Pub Dubliner Hemmi & Valdi 23:00 Live Music. 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Local DJs. Háskólabíó English Pub Hrésso 19:30 The Icelandic Symphony 23:00 Live music. 22:00 Napóleon, DJ Bjarni. Orchestra: Vínartónleikar III. Háskólabíó Kaffibarinn Hemmi & Valdi 19:30 The Icelandic Symphony 23:45 Alfons X. 22:00 Local DJs. Orchestra: Young soloists. Kaffi Zimsen Hressó Hressó 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 22:00 Ímynd, DJ Fannar. 22:00 Jogvan og Vignir. NASA Kaffi Zimsen Kaffibarinn 00:00 Óli Ofur. 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 23:45 Hunk of a Man. Prikið Óliver Kaffi Zimsen 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxxe. 22:00 Ladies’ Night. 22:00 Ólafsvaka night. Beer for 490 Salurinn Prikið ISK. 17:00 New Year’s Concert Auður. 22:00 DJ Addi Intro. Óliver Salurinn Thorvaldsen 22:00 Ingó Veðurguð. 21:00 Dalvík’s Men’s Choir with 22:00 Live DJs. Prikið Matti Matt and Rock Band: 9 22:00. Coxbutter. Queen and The Beatles. SAT Sódóma Sódóma 22:00 The Global Battle Of The 22:00 The Global Battle Of The Austur Bands SEMI-FINALS. Bands SEMI-FINALS. 22:00 Live DJs. Thorvaldsen Thorvaldsen B5 22:00 Mojito night. Mojitos for 22:00 Live DJs. 22:00 Live DJs. 1000 ISK. Bar 11 17 22:00 Biggi Maus. 15 SUN Café Rósenberg FRI 22:00 Mogadon. Dubliner Celtic Cross Austur 22:30 Live Music. 01:00 Live Music. 22:00 Live DJs. Kaffi Zimsen Cultura B5 22:00 Movie Night. 22:00 House DJs. 22:00 Live DJs. Prikið Dubliner Bar 11 23:00 Hangover Cinema presents 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Biggi Maus. Clerks 1. English Pub Café Rósenberg Salurinn 23:00 Live Music. 22:00 Tom and Clave. 13:00 Sounds of the jungle. Háskólabíó Celtic Cross 17:00 The Icelandic Symphony 01:00 Live Music. 18 Orchestra: Vínartónleikar IV. Cultura MON Hemmi & Valdi 22:00 House DJs. 22:00 Local DJs. Dubliner Café Rósenberg Hressó 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Mamiko & Hilmar. 22:00 Penta, DJ Fannar. English Pub Dubliner Kaffibarinn 23:00 Live Music. 22:30 Live Music. 23:45 Sexy Lazer. Hemmi & Valdi Kaffi Zimsen Kaffi Zimsen 22:00 Local DJs. 21:00 Best Friends Day. 2 for 1 beer. 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. Hressó Prikið Prikið 22:00 Silfur, DJ Bjarni. 21:00 Wine and Cheese Night: 2 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxxe. Kaffi Zimsen glasses and cheese for 1,000 ISK. Salurinn 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 17:00 Víkingur and Ran Dank. Óliver Sódóma 22:00 Ladies’ Night. 21:00 Agent Fresco, For A Minor Prikið Reflection, Who Knew, Útidúr. 22:00 Kocoon. Thorvaldsen 22:00 Live DJs. Music & Entertainment | Venue finder 10 SUN Amsterdam Dubliner Nýlenduvöruverzlun Hemma Hafnarstræti 5 | D3 Hafnarstræti 4 | D3 & Valda Brak Dubliner Apótek English Pub Laugavegur 21 | F5 22:30 Live Music. Austurstræti 16 | E3 Austurstræti 12 | E3 Næsti Bar Kaffi Zimsen B5 Glaumbar Ingólfstræti 1A | E5 22:00 Movie Night. Bankastræti 5 | E4 Tryggvagata 20 | D3 Óliver Prikið Babalú Grand Rokk Laugavegur 20A | F5 23:00 Hangover Cinema presents Skólavörðustígur 22 | F5 Smiðjustígur | E5 Ölstofan 2010. Batterí Highlander Vegamótastígur | F5 Hafnarstræti 1-3 | D3 Lækjargata 10 | F3 Prikið 11 Bar 11 Hressó Bankastræti | F5 MON Laugavegur 11 | E5 Austurstræti 20 | E4 Rósenberg Klapparstígur 25 | F6 Café Rósenberg Barbara Hverfisbarinn 22:00 Arnar. Laugavegur 22 | F6 Hverfisgata 20 | E5 Sódóma Reykjavík Tryggvagata 22 | D3 Dubliner Bjarni Fel Jacobsen 22:30 Live Music. Austurstræti 20 | E4 Austurstræti 9 | E3 Sólon Bankastræti 7A | E4 Kaffi Zimsen Boston Kaffi Hljómalind 21:00 Best Friends Day. 2 for 1 beer. Laugavegur 28b | F6 Laugavegur 23 | F6 Thorvaldsen Prikið Café Cultura Kaffi Zimsen Austurstræti 8 | E3 21:00 Wine and Cheese Night: 2 Hverfisgata 18 | E5 Hafnarstræti 18 | E4 Vegamót glasses and cheese for 1,000 ISK. Café Paris Kaffibarinn Vegamótastígur 4 | F5 Austurstræti 14 | E3 Bergstraðastræti 1 | F5 12 Balthazar Karamba TUE Hafnarstræti 1-3| D3 Laugavegur 22 | F6 Celtic Cross London/Reykjavík Café Rósenberg Hverfisgata 26 | E5 Tryggvagata 22 | D3 22:00 Arnar. Dillon NASA Laugavegur 30 | F6 Þorvaldsenstræti 2| E3 Salurinn Kaffibarinn 19 21:00 Björn Thoroddsen Guitarfest. 23:45 Hunk of a Man. TUE Thorvaldsen Kaffi Zimsen Café Rósenberg 22:00 Live DJs. 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 22:00 Kristinn. Prikið Dubliner 24 22:00. V.I.P. DJ Krúsi. 22:30 Live Music. SUN Sódóma Óliver 22:00 Dark Music Days: Daníel Café Rósenberg Bjarnason. 22:00 Live Karaoke with Raggi 22:00 Big Band. Troubadour. Thorvaldsen Dubliner 22:00 Live DJs. Prikið 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Óli Hommi. Hafnarborg 31 20:00 Trio Reykjavík New Years SUN 20 Recital. WED Langholtskirkja Café Rósenberg 20:00 Eivør Pálsdóttir. 22:00 Poetry night with music. Austur Prikið Dubliner 21:00 Live Jazz. 23:00 Hangover Cinema presents 22:30 Live Music. Café Rósenberg Roadhouse. Prikið 22:00 Þóra Björk. 23:00 Hangover Cinema presents Dubliner Thinner. 22:30 Live Music. 25 MON Prikið 01 22:00 Dóri DNA. Café Rósenberg MON 22:00 Regin Fyrra. 21 Dubliner Café Rósenberg THU 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Blúsfélag Reykjavíkur. Kaffi Zimsen Dubliner Bar 11 21:00 Best Friends Day. 2 for 1 beer. 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Kreppa Night. Beer for 450 Kaffi Zimsen ISK. 26 21:00 Best Friends Day. 2 for 1 beer. Café Rósenberg TUE Prikið 22:00 Árstíðir. 21:00 Wine and Cheese Night: 2 Cultura Dubliner glasses and cheese for 1,000 ISK. 22:00 House DJs. 22:30 Live Music. Dubliner Óliver 02 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Live Karaoke with Raggi TUE English Pub Troubadour. Dubliner 23:00 Live Music. Prikið 22:30 Live Music. Fríkirkjan 21:00 Wine and Cheese Night: 2 Óliver 21:00 Ragnheiður Gröndal. glasses and cheese for 1,000 ISK. 22:00 Live Karaoke with Raggi Háskólabíó Troubadour. 19:30 The Icelandic Symphony 27 Salurinn Orchestra: 20th Century Classic. WED 20:00 Nordic Affect. Hrésso 22:00 Troubadour Böddi and Austur Davið. 21:00 Live Jazz. 03 Café Rósenberg WED Kaffi Zimsen 22:00 Mamiko & Hilmar. 22:00 Ólafsvaka night. Beer for 490 Dubliner Austur ISK. 22:30 Live Music. 21:00 Live Jazz. Óliver Café Rósenberg 22:00 Ingó Veðurguð. 22:00 Bjarni Snæbjörnsson. Prikið 28 Dubliner 22:00 Krúsi DJ. THU 22:30 Live Music. Thorvaldsen Bar 11 22:00 Mojito Night. Mojitos for 1000 22:00 Kreppa Night. Beer for 450 04 ISK. ISK. THU Cultura Bar 11 22 22:00 House DJs. FRI 22:00 Kreppa Night. Beer for 450 Dubliner ISK. 22:30 Live Music. Austur Café Rósenberg 22:00 Live DJs. Háskólabíó 22:00 Matti Sax. 19:30 The Icelandic Symphony B5 Cultura 22:00 Live DJs. Orchestra: Sögusinfónían. 22:00 House DJs. Bar 11 Hressó Dubliner 22:00 Óli Dóri. 22:00 Jogvan og Vignir. 22:30 Live Music. Café Rósenberg Kaffi Zimsen English Pub 22:00 Ólafsvaka night. Beer for 490 22:00 Rokkabillyband Reykja- 23:00 Live Music. ISK. víkur. Kaffibarinn Celtic Cross Óliver 23:45 Retox Party. WELCOME CARD 01:00 Live Music. 22:00 Ingó Veðurguð. Kaffi Zimsen Cultura 22:00 Ólafsvaka night. Beer for 490 22:00 House DJs. See more and save more WELCOME CARD 29 ISK. INCLUDING FRI when visiting Reykjavík. CITY BUS TRANSPORT, 2009 - 2010 Dubliner FREE ADMISSIONS, Óliver DISCOUNTS OFF TOURS, 22:30 Live Music. SHOPPING, AND SERVICES 22:00 Ingó Veðurguð. Free admissions and discounts AVAILABLE FOR 24, 48 English Pub Austur AND 72 HOURS. off tours, shopping and services 23:00 Live Music. 22:00 Live DJs. 05 Hemmi & Valdi B5 for 24, 48 or 72 hours. 8 FRI 2010 4 22:00 Live DJs. . Great value for money. 22:00 Local DJs. WELCOME CARD Hrésso Bar 11 Austur The Welcome Card can 22:00 Dalton, DJ Elli. 22:00 Gunni. 22:00 Live DJs. HBS 48592 01 be purchased at: Celtic Cross B5 S Kaffi Zimsen The Centre, major hotels, museums,

01:00 Live Music. SIA.I

22:00 Live DJs. A 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. tourist information centres and Cultura Café Rósenberg Nordic House Hlemmur and BSÍ bus stations. 21:00 Wildbirds and Peace 22:00 House DJs. 22:00 Menn ársins. ÍSLENSK drums. Dubliner Celtic Cross Óliver 22:30 Live Music. 01:00 Live Music. 22:00 Ladies’ Night. English Pub Cultura Prikið 23:00 Live Music. 22:00 House DJs. 22:00 Franz og Kristó, DJ Addi Hemmi & Valdi Dubliner Intro. 22:00 Local DJs. 22:30 Live Music. Aðalstræti 2 • 101 Reykjavík • Tel +354 590 1550 • [email protected] Salurinn Hressó English Pub www.visitreykjavik.is 21:00 Björn Thoroddsen Guitarfest. 22:00 Jogvan og Vignir, DJ Bjarni. 23:00 Live Music. Sódóma Kaffi Zimsen Hemmi & Valdi 22:00 The Global Battle Of The 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 22:00 Local DJs. Bands - FINALS. Óliver Kaffi Zimsen Thorvaldsen 22:00 Ladies’ Night. 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. 22:00 Live DJs. Sódóma Óliver 22:00 Dark Music Days. 22:00 Ladies’ Night. 23 Thorvaldsen Thorvaldsen SAT 22:00 Live DJs. 22:00 Live DJs. Austur 30 22:00 Live DJs. SAT B5 22:00 Live DJs. Austur Bar 11 22:00 Live DJs. 22:00 Biggi Maus. B5 Celtic Cross 22:00 Live DJs. 01:00 Live Music. Bar 11 Cultura 22:00 Óli Dóri. 22:00 House DJs. Celtic Cross Dubliner 01:00 Live Music. 22:30 Live Music. Cultura English Pub 22:00 House DJs. 23:00 Live Music. Dubliner Hemmi & Valdi 22:30 Live Music. 22:00 Local DJs. English Pub Hrésso 23:00 Live Music. 22:00 Ímynd, DJ Elli. Hemmi & Valdi Kaffi Zimsen 22:00 Local DJs. 22:00 DJs Nino and Dramatík. Hrésso Prikið 22:00 Dalton, DJ Bjarni. 22:00 Danni Deluxxe. 13 16 9 Jan. Jan. Jan.

Oki Doki # 13 Sódóma Reykjavík 21:50 Agent Fresco, Who Knew, Útúrdúr and For a Minor Reflection Those looking for some rock and action this first weekend since the holidays should consider heading to Sódóma on the ninth to witness one of the first concerts of the year. Now-seasoned rockers Agent Fresco promise to The Global Battle Of The Bands blast our economic worries to pieces headlining a solid bill of local rock Sódóma Reykjavík 21:00 - 13th to 16th of January acts that includes indie outfits Útúrdúr and Who Knew?, as well as post-rock Preliminary round of the Global battle of the Bands revisionists For a Minor Reflection, who The first round of the local Global Battle of the Bands preliminaries will commence will share their eerie and epic stage on Wednesday. The contest will take over Sódóma for three nights, promising to presence. Admission is set at 1.000 ISK fulfill every garage band’s wet dream is up for grabs, as the winners will receive and the night is scheduled to begin at a trip to the UK and get to compete in the final rounds of the competition. This 21:50 (although our experiences with is a great opportunity for young bands to come forth and showcase their stuff, Sódóma stage-times give reason to but seasoned veterans are also encouraged to enter – every act is free to enter think that highly doubtful). Stage diving so long as it can perform two original compositions. Bands interested in joining is allowed, but every third headbang the competition can send along their info to [email protected], but those costs 50 ISK. interested in taking the proceedings can do so at Sódóma for a mere 500 ISK admission fee. Every competition night will start at the timely hour of 21:00.MZ 15 16 Jan. Jan.

The Icelandic French Movie Festival Háskólabíó and Regnboginn Now here’s a reason to celebrate! The tenth annual Icelandic French Film Festival starts on January 15th, and will last until the 28th. The festival is sponsored by the French and Canadian embassies, but other contributors are Græna Ljósið, Sena and Alliance Française. The festival’s programme looks promising as hell, with them premiering ten new francophone films from all over the world (crazy places like ÓLI OFUR @ NASA Canada, Algeria, Tunisia and, of course, France). For instance, opening film Le NASA 23:30 Petit Nicholas was a box office hit in 1.000 ISK France and was seen by more than five million folks over there. That’s a lot of Reykjavík isn’t exactly the Ibiza of the North. Well, not until last year, maybe, when people. Other prominent films up for it started claiming its status as a techno fortress. So-called ‘club nights’ are getting scrutiny are Louis Michel, directed by more popular by the day, where some imported DJ or other demonstrates his Icelander Sólveig Anspach, Le Premier awesomeness accompanied by several of his Icelandic colleagues. cri and Khamsa. More info will be made Things are about to change, though, as Óli Ofur is claiming his throne as the available later at www.af.is - go look at techno king of Iceland and for the first time on our native ground an all-Icelandic DJ it soon! leads a genuine “club night”! Óli is a known cat in the DJ industry and has diligently avoided clichés and repetitions in his music, instead building up his own groove ambitiously. So believe me, this night will be legendary. SKK The End Hafnarborg - January 9th Ragnar Kjartansson’s The End is finally in Iceland! The show opens in Hafnarborg on January 9th and will run 13 until March 7th and features paintings Jan. the self-described incurable romantic made during his infamous stint at the 53rd edition of the Venice Biennale. At the Biennale, Ragnar painted a portrait of a young man in a swimsuit smoking cigarettes and drinking beer day after day, everyday. The goal was presenting Faust a tableau vivant to the viewers, and that goal was certainly reached, garnering Borgarleikhúsið acclaim from publications such as the New York Times. Faust is awesome. It’s probably one the most famous theatrical pieces of all time. In addition to this live performance, a Written by Goethe in the 18th century, the piece has long been considered one of video installation was displayed in a the best of all time. However, old pieces they can sometimes benefit from a little separate room showing Ragnar and revamping to make sense in a modern context. And that is exactly what theatrical a collaborator playing an ambiguous group Vesturport has done with Faust this time around. Bringing a whole new take country music arrangement. The on the old drama – featuring original music and lyrics by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis! paintings that accumulated in piles This isn’t the first time Vesturport have done this sort of thing. Older works around the Icelandic Pavilion in Venice they’ve already tried their hand at reworking include Romeo and Juliet, which can now be seen in Hafnarborg and garnered international praise, and Georg Büchner’s classic Woyzeck. The show will will likely give viewers an impressive premiere on the 13th of January and tickets can be bought online at midi.is or at impression of Ragnar’s performance. Borgarleikhúsið. SVT F D For your mind, body and soul

REVIEWS EAT and DRINK: Places We'll Miss From 2009

1 Segurmo Grapevine’s pick for best restaurant of ’09, Segurmo at Boston (the bar, not the town), run by chef Númi Thomasson, closed its doors after a ridiculously successful year in business. There is now another similarly themed restaurant at Boston that is very fine in its own right, but we’ll still miss Segurmo.

2 Kaffi Hljómalind Hip and organic co-op café Hljómalind closed its doors on the main street for real estate related reasons. Whilst the search for a new locale continues, we can but hope to see Hljómalind open for business again – soon.

3 McDonalds Nah. New And Good in 2009 by the sea 1 Dill Restaurant and a delicios lobster Chef-sommelier team Gunnar Karl Gíslason and Ólafur Örn Ólafsson opened their first at Fjörubordid in Stokkseyri restaurant at the Nordic House this year, going straight to the top of the local culinary scene with their local and seasonal New Farewell to Forks Nordic Food menu. The Nordic House 2 Fiskifélagið A few looks at the local culinary scene and few of my With ingredients from all over the world favourites as my stint as the Reykjavik Grapevine taking centre stage, Fiskifélagið (or “Fish Company”) is a fun addition to the Reykjavik -Spör Ragnheiður ehf. Ágústsdóttir restaurants. Their Around the World food critic draws to a close. menu comes recommended. Vesturgata 2

The cover girl of the Icelandic culinary before. It may just pay off to pay a bit 3 Ali Baba year was certainly McDonalds, the extra on the main street tourist eatery Sweet Syrian style shawarma, kebab and fast food chain that left the country prices and take out your fancy pants. falafel by Ingólfstorg. One of the best takeout in November. And in many ways, it And where do I spend my places in town. The Arais Maria portion does stands for a lot of things that happened: own money? For grocery shopping, the trick every time. Ingólfstorg The economically dim times casting Melabúðin in Vesturbær, farmers a shadow over our dinner plates and market Frú Lauga and the deli Búrið 4 Balkanika speeding up the constant cycle of form my holy trinity. Another new ethnic kitchen, Balkanika serves openings and closings of restaurants, For the liquid gold, I like the authentic Bulgarian for a fair price. Vitastigur the fast food obsession of the nation, Holtagarður branch of Vínbúð for their and the rise of the local raw materials— selection and the Austurstræti branch at 3 x Recently if in this case in the shape of tasteless quarter to closing time for its delirious Opened slop. atmosphere. If it is out for drinks, Luckily enough, the rise of the Bakkus offers a refreshing selection of 1 Brasilia local ingredients has also meant more vodkas. The latest ethnic eatery in town, Brasilia and more fine dining, with restaurants For best burgers in town, I head offers South American flavors—including a celebrating the local produce, more to Hamborgarabúllan. For cheap and horsey take on the Brazilian national dish shopping possibilities and new food good lunch, I like Ostabúðin, even Feijoada—and decent prices for breakfast, products launched. The overall quality if it is often very busy. My foreign lunch and dinner. Skólavörðustigur of produce found on grocery store guests I tend to take to Sægreifinn for 2 The Noodle Wars shelves remains as low as ever, while its eccentric atmosphere and famous Skólavörðustigur was just not big enough the prices have been rising steadily. My lobster soup. to room two noodle places. Noodle Station wish for 2010: Consumers start voting For breakfast, I like the hidden quickly built a loyal following but has had to with their wallets. Then again, it may be gem Grái Kötturinn for its food and lock its doors for now—stir(fry)ing rumours hard with an empty belly. atmosphere—but not for its coffee. about a Battle of the Woks. It a warzone For the eaters-out, the economic For that I go to café and roastery out there, but if you really need a bowl crisis also offers an opportunity. Several Kaffismiðja Íslands. For chocolate cake, Núðuskálin is still stands. Skólavörðustigur new ethnic kitchens have opened for I dream of Argentína Steakhouse. business: the Nepalese Kitchen, Syrian Finally, for the best food in town, 3 Potturinn & Pannan Ali Baba, Brazilian Brasilia, Balkanese I go to Dill in the Nordic house that Having quietly operated on Brautarholt for Balkanica and a handful of noodle serves bistro style lunch and heavenly almost 30 years, Potturinn & Pannan is now places add a metropolitan feel to the 5-course-dinners (with champagne, serving up mid-priced, easy-going food frozen capital. In addition, the various please!) by the chef Gunnar Karl in the city centre. The menu features local high end places in town that used to Gíslason. ingredients, pizza and pasta. Skólabrú cater for businessmen and their prey Verði ykkur að góðu! For full restaurant and food listings and venue now turn to travellers as their previous - sARI PELTONEN finder visit www.grapevine.is for detailed clientele are gone with the wind, many information. of them offering better value than

Food & Drink | Venue finder

3 Frakkar D6/E6 Grái Kötturinn Jómfrúin Pisa Sushibarinn Now offering Baldursgata 14 | F9 Bæjarins Beztu Hverfisgata 16A | G7 Lækjargata 4 | E6 Lækjargötu 6b | E6 Laugavegur 2 | F7 Aktu Taktu Tryggvagata | E6 Grillhúsið Kaffi Hljómalind Pizza King Svarta Kaffi Skúlugata 15 | K8 Brons Tryggvagata 20 | E5/ Laugavegur 21 | G7 Hafnarstræti 18 | E6 Laugavegur 54 | H8 E6 catering service! Alibaba Pósthússtræti 9 | E6 Kaffitár Pizza Pronto Sægreifinn Veltusund 3b | E3 Café Cultura Habibi Bankastræti 8 | F6 Vallarstræti 4 | D6 Verbuð 8, Geirsgata Hafnarstræti 20 | D5 | D5 American Style Hverfisgata 18 | G6 Kaffivagninn Pizzaverksmiðjan Tryggvagata 26 | E5 Café Loki Hamborgarabúlla Grandagarður 10 Lækjargötu 8 | E6 Tapas Tómasar (“Bullan”) | D1 Vesturgata 3B | D5 Argentína Steak- Lokastígur 28 | G9 Prikið house Geirsgata 1 | D5 Kebabhúsið Bankastræti 12 | F6 Thorvaldsen Café Paris Austurstræti 8 | E6 Barónstígur | I8 Austurstræti 14 | E6 Hlölla Bátar Austurstræti 2 | E6 Ráðhúskaffi | D7 Ingólfstorg | D6 Austurlanda- Café Roma Kofi Tómasar Tjarnargata 11 Tíu Dropar hraðlestin Rauðarárstígur 8 | J9 Hornið Frænda Santa Maria Laugavegur 27 | G7 Hverfisgata 64A | H7 Hafnarstræti 15 | E6 Laugavegur 2 | F7 Domo Laugavegur 22A, | F7 Tívolí Á Næstu Grösum Þingholtsstræti 5 | F7 Hótel Holt Krua Thai Segafredo Laugavegur 3 | F7 Laugavegur 20B | G7 Einar Ben Bergstaðarstræti 37 Tryggvagata 14 | D5 Lækjatorg | E6 | F7 Vegamót B5 Veltusundi | E6 La Primavera Serrano Vegamótastígur 4 Bankastræti 5 | F6 Eldsmiðjan Humarshúsið Austurstræti 9 | E6 Hringbraut 12 | I3 | G7 Ammtmanstígur 1 | E7 Bakkus Bragagata 38A | G9 Lystin Við Tjörnina Tryggvagata 22 | D3 Fiskmarkaðurinn Hressó Laugavegur 73 | H7 Shalimar Templarasund 3 | E7 Austurstræti 20 | E6 Austurstræti 4 | E3 Basil & Lime Aðalstræti 12 | D6 Mokka Vitabar Klapparstíg 38 | G7 Geysir Bar/Bistro Icelandic Skólavörðustígur 3A Silfur Bergþórugata 21 | Open: Babalú Aðalstræti 2 | D6 Fish & Chips | F7 Pósthússtræti 11 | E6 H9 Tryggvagata 8 | E5 Skólavörðustígur 22A Garðurinn Nonnabiti Sjávarkjallarinn Mondays-Saturdays 11:30-22:30 | G8 Klappastigur 37 | G7 Indian Mango Hafnarstræti 9 | E6 Aðalstræti 2 | D6 Frakkastígur 12 | G6 Sundays 16:00-22:00 Balthazar Glætan book café O Sushi Sólon Hafnarstræti 1-3 | Laugavegur 19 | F5 Lækjargata 2A | E6 Bankastræti 7a | F6 Central Reykjavík FAXA FLÓI

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UR GARÐ DA AN GR Maritime Museum 1 2 3 Th4e 5 Old Harbour Old Depart for whale and puffin watching tours from the old Harbou ST r MAPAU harbour, a lively area, offering MAP an assortment of restaurants ÁNAN and activity centres Places We Like AMÝR AR GA 1 Deli TA NÝL Bankastræti 14 END Old U Harbour GAT Getting a good slice of pizzaGUR on the A Area go can be an utter ESVEordeal. If you’re MN not careful,FR you’llA frequently wind up R U R paying good money for a cardboardy G ÁNA VEST RG 4 Future wafer that has been sitting in a heater ATA UR GE B GAT 14 IR Concert GARSTÍ BÁRUG A SG box for a week. Not at Deli, however.R A Hall AT TA Their slices are consistently awesomeBO A A Reykjavík and fresh, the topping selectionRA is ÖL AT D Art U SG I intriguing and tasteful and,ÆÐ best of all, GA I Museum BR TA they’re really cheap. ÆT ÆG Main TR 6 11YG Tourist GV 7 2 Grand Rokk ASTR Info AG Down AT A Smiðjustígur 6 D Taxi Town GARÐ 17HAFNAR18 The only ‘real’ bar in town, no doubt. In I 3 S SÆBR TÚNG A ST K ATA ÆT US RÆTI ÚL downtown Reykjavik it’s hard to rumble R TUR T ST The AG AU S RÆ A into a pub not crowded by musicians or TI Culture TA T AL Austur 15 I National artsy folks, but this one is an exception. AÐ völlur T House Park 10 Theatre Whether it’s 4AM on a FridayATA or 5PM RÆ G KIRK on a Monday you’ll see theA same flock JUST BA 13 LIND AUT LL RÆ N HVE ÍGUR AR Skyline SÆBR TI K T GA of John Does, taking VAa break from their STH.ST ASTR 1 Icelandic ATA 12 RF S TA Ó G IS2 Vesturbæjar P ÆT G daily routines, enjoying a shot ’n’ a Parliament ATA AR HOFS SÓ E AR I

Swimming LV J TI “Financial

brew. If you want to witness an earnest A 5 PP ∆ L K Pool LAG I UR Icelandic ‘Cheers’ or a ‘Moe’s’ – this is RÆ 9 LA AT LÆ T ÍG A ÆT K District” A S the place. Oh, and on weekends, they R 8 ST AT TS Lauga play host to some awesome concerts, A ST TI NS T RG City OL vegur too. SKK HR AT FS A ÚN H V ART INGB Hall Taxi RÆR BORG ÐU RG LaÓL ugavegur T SU Up NA ÞING NG 3 Havarí RA INGÓLReykjavík’s mARSain shopping SK U AR T and culture AÐstreet, featuring Austurstræti 6 TJ T Ó Town HVE The F LA RF a wide rangGS e of bars, bistros, Tower GUR IS R V R G Even before it opened, Havarí was cafes and restaurants. U ATA EGUR E ÖR VE B ÍG everybody’s favourite new music and A L UV ÐU T AU

City ÁS design store. Headed by Svavar Pétur TA GA KJ ST AS VEGU

Pond UF G ÚN GA R SKÚL R E I S ÍGUR T and Berglind of Skakkamanage, the KK TISG R AT LA AG ÍK IN ATA from 8 a.m. shop shills the musical goods of Kimi A AT ÞÓ A Hlemmur NÓ FR FR ÍGUR ÓÐ UT Records, Borgin Hljómplötur, gogoyoko RSG UR Bus National ST ÍG West RA A Terminal and Skakkapopp as well as posters, Gallery ATA ST B art, design products and clothing. The of Iceland VIT S A Side UR G N NJ RR stop is only open until January 12EL so ÁLSG HÁ A TÚN ∆ check it out while you can! CF IM AT AT NO A BARÓ S Taxi Laugardals RK Hallgríms BE BI R Swimming 4 Krua Thai kirkja GÞÓ BALDURSG RUG Pool Church ATA LAU Tryggvagata 14 SÓLE A TA GUR BRAUTARHOLT GA SALE AT TÍ V GA EG January - 2010 This is the best affordable Thai food on AG AR UR YJ AG RS offer in Reykjavík. Rice is always fluffy, BR ARÐ AR The Einar NJ RÁ the spicy kick is just right and the A GA Jónsson spring rolls are always crispy cylinders H Sundhöllin Museum UÐ TA Swimming S Italian coffee, of deliciousness. The servings are A K University R Pool RA IPHOL S cakes, hearty too, so you’re bound to leave AT GU KIPH of Iceland BERG OL RG SSTÍ satisfied. CF Hljómskáli T T light meals, EI ÐU ÚN Park ST R BARÓN ÍK and great books 5 Glætan - Bókakaffi SU University HR AÐ East AT SG of Iceland INGB ARST AT UT NÓ Laugavegur 19 Park L T R A RA Side AU RÆ AU B AU Glætan - Bókakaffi is a great café with FÁ A I T TI SV BR a domestic feel. It’s somehow always RR a convenient choice for whatever EGUR RS HÁ NO TEIGSVE you’re doing when you come a across S NA GUR it. I am always happy to step into this GUN Miklatún comfort zone and simmer down with Nordic House ÍGUR Culture Center Park an excellent cup of espresso and one FLÓK VA AG of the books in their selection. Glætan, TNSMÝR ÁRST A R TA roughly translated, means a tiny ray ARVE GA ÐA of light, something this nice little café 7 8 9 GUR ML Kjarvalsstaðir Kolaportið KaffifélagiðTA Kaffibarinnn AU definitely is. AJ A HR National GA INGB R Tryggvagata 19 SkólavörðustígAR 10 BergstaðastrætiBS 1Í RA Museum UT T RÐ Coach Reykjavík’s massive flea market is a KaffifélagiðA has been a Grapevine Weekends are somewhatTerminal overrated at AU 6 NJ Sódóma Reykjavík wonderful place to get lost for a few favourite since they opened on Kaffibarinn if you ask me. Don’t get me BR

Ð Í hours, rummaging through stall upon Skólavörðustígur a couple of years wrong, they can be brilliant if you’re AR Tryggvagata 22 L HR stall of potential treasures. There back. The small coffeehouse always completely pissed, the DJ is fresh and ÝR Newly opened Sódóma on Tryggvagötu IN AH are heaps of used clothing, knitwear delivers an excellent cup of Italian- the crowd is full-blooded,GB still the M R U is already a hit with party crowds and AU NG and other yard-sale type goods from style coffee, and downtown regulars weekdays are better. ItT doesn’t matter B gig-goers alike. An extensive venue, LA ÓLS decades of yore, and a large food can spring for a clip-off coffee card to when you pop in, you’re always treated TAÐ INGL filled with reasonably priced beverages MIK ARH section with fish, meats and baked save on each purchase. like a pal rather than a customer, and LA LÍ KR and reasonably good looking people. BR Ð goods. Check out the vintage post you should always expect get caught in AU Some of Iceland’s finest musical T Kringlan cards and prints at the table nearRey thekjav ík some shenanigan, whether it’s a crazy ventures have played in recent months, Domestic Shopping

army surplus. CF Monday bender or a wacko Tuesday... Center∆ and their schedule looks promising ∆ Airport well... bender. SKK too. Also, make sure to visit their men’s room for a glance at the “Pissoir of Absolution”. JB Central Reykjavík FAXA FLÓI

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UR GARÐ DA AN GR Maritime Museum The 6 7 8 9 10 13 Kisan Old Harbour Old Laugavegur 7 Depart for whale and puffin For a map of outside downtown watching tours from the old Harbou Reykjavík check out links on This store is incredibly cool. It’s ST r AU harbour, a lively area, offering www.grapevine.is or the Icelandic stocked with really unique and quirky an assortment of restaurants clothes, outerwear, accessories and ÁNAN phonebook website www.ja.is MÝR and activity centres handbags, plus they have an adorable AR section of kids clothes, kitschy vintage GA toys and books and even interior TA NÝLE design items. Wicked place; definitely ND Old U Harbour worth a visit. CF GAT GUR A Area ESVE MN FRA R U R G ÁNA VEST RG Future ATA UR GE 14 Café d’Haiti GAT IR Concert GARSTÍ BÁRUG A SG R A Hall Tryggvagata 12 AT TA BO A A Reykjavík The first time I entered this exotic little RA ÖL AT D Art joint, meaning to buy myself a take- U SG I ÆÐ GA I Museum BR TA away espresso, I ended up with two ÆG ÆT Main TR YG kilos of fresh and roasted coffee beans Tourist GV due to some language complications ASTR Info AG Down AT and way too much politeness. Since A Taxi Town then I have enjoyed probably way-too- GARÐ I HAFNAR many wonderful cups of Haitian coffee, S SÆBR TÚNG A ST K ATA ÆT US RÆTI ÚL but they’re always as nice, so the two R TUR T ST The AG AU S RÆ kilos were definitely worth it. SKK T A AL Austur I Culture TA T I National AÐ völlur T House Park Theatre ATA RÆ G KIRK A JUST BA LIND 15 Hressó AUT LL RÆ N HVE ÍGUR AR Skyline SÆBR TI K T VA STH.ST ASTR GA Icelandic ATA RF S TA Austurstræti 20 Ó G IS Vesturbæjar P ÆT G Parliament ATA AR HOFS SÓ AR I

Swimming LV J TI You know, Hressó is basically the“Financial only

A PP ∆ L K Pool LAG I UR place I go for coffee. Why? Their coffee RÆ LA AT LÆ T ÍG A ÆT K District” A S is decent to excellent, but their forte is R ST AT TS Lauga surely their wonderful patio, where you A ST TI NS T RG City OL vegur HR AT FS A can enjoy the spring breezeÚN in the sun, H V ART INGB Hall Taxi RÆR 16 BORG ÐU RG LaÓL ugavegur T wrap yourself in a blanket beneath an SU Up NA ÞING NG electric heater in January and at all RA INGÓLReykjavík’s mARSain shopping SK times: smoke. They boast of quite the U AR and culture AÐstreet, featuring T R TJ T Ó Town HVE The LA RF prolific menu, but I’d reconsider the a wide rangGS e of bars, bistros, Tower GU IS R V R G playlists to tell you the truth, too much cafes and restaurants. U ATA EGUR E ÖR VE B ÍG of Nickelback really hurts. SKK A L UV ÐU T AU City ÁS TA GA ORIGINAL INDIAN & PAKISTANI TASTE

KJ ST AS VEGU

Pond UF G ÚN GA R SKÚL R E I S ÍGUR T KK TISG R AT LA AG ÍK IN A AT ATA ÞÓ A Hlemmur NÓ FR FR ÍGUR ÓÐ UT National RSG UR Bus 16 Boston ST ÍG West RA A Terminal Gallery ATA ST B Laugavegur 28 of Iceland VIT S A Side UR N NJ RR EL ÁLSG Like an older sibling to the fabledHÁ A TÚN ∆ IM AT AT NO (now deceased) Sirkús, Boston is a A BARÓ S Taxi Laugardals RK Hallgríms BE warm and mellow second-floor bar BI R INDIAN INDIAN Swimming kirkja GÞÓ on Laugavegur that plays host to the BALDURSG RUG LUNCH DINNER Pool Church ATA arty party crowd. The baroqueLAU wall SÓLE 1290.- INDIANGUR - PAKISTANI CUISINE 1490.- G A TA BRAUTARdressingsHOLT and deep, rich colouredAV AT GA TÍ EG AG AR décor make this bar feel pretty swank,U R YJ AG AUSTURSTRRS ÆTI 4, Tel. 551 0292 www.shalimar.is BR ARÐ but Boston also serves up some AR The Einar NJ RÁ A reasonably priced food earlier in the GA Jónsson Sundhöllin Museum UÐ evening, so it’s not too swank. CF TA Swimming S A K University R Pool RA IPHOL S AT GU KIPH of Iceland BERG OL RG SSTÍ 17 Hljómskáli T Austur T EI ÐU ÚN Park ST R BARÓN Austurstræti 7 ÍK SU University HR AÐ East AT SG of Iceland INGB ARST AT UT Sleek andNÓ shiny, this new restaurant Park L T R A RA Side and bar is a straight-up boutique AU RÆ AU B AU FÁ A T TI hot spot for stylish kids and trendy SV BR RR professionals alike. Appropriate for EGUR RS HÁ NO TE formal business meetings but casual S NA IGSVE GUR enough for the roll-out-bed-at-5pm

GUN crowd, they serve up ample, satisfying, Miklatún Nordic House ÍGUR modern dishes at reasonable prices. Culture Center Park FLÓK This is also one of the rare places to VA AG TNSMÝR ÁRST A get a full breakfast all day long! It’s R TA ARVE really fucking good too. RL GA ÐA GUR ML 11 12 Kjarvalsstaðir TA 10 Bakkus AU Prikið A HR Grái Kötturinn National GA INGB R 18 Jacobsen AR BSÍ HverfisgataRA 16a Tryggvagata 22 – Naustarmegin BankastrætiMuseum 12 UT T RÐ Coach Laugavegur 22 A Terminal Super relaxed and cozy diner/café A new and welcome addition to Prikið is one of those places that AU NJ below street level. This place makes Reykajvík’s bar scene, Bakkus serves shape-shifts. It’s a warm café with Jacobsen is owned by some nouveau BR Ð Í the best hangover breakfast ever (the up reasonably priced beer, a really photographs of their senior frequenters AR L riche Swedes, and has been providing HR truck!) and any-other-day breakfast as impressive selection of international on weekday mornings, a hung-over ÝR IN AH a non-stop party over the last few GB well. It’s a nice and relaxing place to vodkas and an atmosphere unlike hangout on weekend afternoons, and M R months. Besides its importing foreign U AU NG T eat and increase your caffeine intake any other in town. An eclectic mix of during nights it’s filled to the brim big-shotB DJs and other niceties, it LA ÓLS and chill with friends or with some patrons, regular live music and movie with what remains of Iceland’s hip is probablyTAÐ most appreciated for its INGL MIK ARH reading material. CF nights keep this place interesting LABRhop scene. Go there in daytime for the loooong hours; it doesn’tLÍÐ matter if you KR and always inviting. Expect dancing cheapAU burgers; enter at night for some Reykjavík T stop partying at 2AM or way-too-much Kringlan

Domestic on tables and to-the-death foosball OTT hip-hop debauchery, old skool AM, Jacobsen is always forking out Shopping

battles. CF and the latest bangers alike. SKK Center∆ ∆ Airport shots and cocktails. SKK

ICELANDIC Fish, Lamb & Chicken in original PAKISTANI & INDIAN curries, TANDOORI dishes, TANDOORI Nan breads Kebabs, Samosas,Vegetarian specialities, LUNCH BUFFET(11:30--15:30) & DINNER OFFERS

Pakistani-indian kebab & curry cuisine AUSTURSTRÆTI 4, Tel. 551 0292 www.shalimar.is Iceland is a dish best served cold Iceland isadishbest served Spör ehf. Our bussesareOur warm Don’t lettherough ADVENTURES WINTER Come by and check our variety of tours of variety our check and by Come Diving/Snorkeling Tours -PrivateTours Horse RidingTours -WhaleWatching Tours Glacier Tours -SuperJeepTours -CarRentalFlight/HelicopterTours Tourist Access-Sightseeing Center-Internet Information Icelandic Travel Market exterior foolexterior you! Winter Special Offers in January in Offers Special Winter 551 1166-www.bogf.is on the inside! Scheduled Busses Scheduled [email protected] - [email protected] - 4979 522 +354 Tel: Downtown - 2 Bankastræti - CENTER BOOKING Áætlunarbílar Linienbusse Bus régulier Linjebussar

Icelandic Travel Market Travel Icelandic

BOOKING SERVICE BOOKING FREE

Cocktail pleasures and 11–19, SatandSun13–17 18–20

Venues by day. are alphabetically listed 101 Gallery Art Art JANUARY Tue–Sun 14–17 Tue–Sat 1–17 Thu–Sat 14–17 andbyappoint- Tue–Sun 13–17 Tryggvagata 15|D5 For completeand detailed listings Artotek www.grapevine.is The EinarJónssonMuseum The Culture House How to use the listings ASÍ Art Museum Art ASÍ Museum Art ASÍ The Culture House Culture The Árbæjarsafn ASÍ ArtMuseum Artótek ment Open daily11–17 08:30–16:00 Open weekdaysfrom Opening Hours:Fri andSat information oninformation venues visit Grundarstígur 21|H8 www.thjodmenning.is www.skulptur.is www.startart.is www.or.is/Forsida/Gallery100/ www.101hotel. www.sim.is/Index/Islenska/ www.fotografi.is www.this.is/birta Gallery StartArt Gallery Augafyrir Gallery 100° Eiriksgata | G9 Eiriksgata Laugavegur 12B |G7 Bæjarháls 1 Kistuhylur 4 |G10 41 Freyugata Café Karólína Café Hverfisgata 15|F6 Hverfisgata Hverfisgata 35|G7 Hverfisgata Hverfisgata 18A|F6 Hverfisgata is/101hotel/101gallery/ Fótógrafí Dwarf Gallery Mon 10–21,Tue–Thu 10–19,Fri Skólavörðustígur 4a|F7 Hafnarborg Hafnarhús Gallery Art Reykjavík Hafnarborg 16 16 14 OPENING 17 9 9 9 9 Exhibition by Ragnar Kjartansson that that Kjartansson Ragnar by Exhibition End The dedicated 1974Erró’s –1981 series -Astronauts Erró Bjarni by paintings featuring Exhibition Flesh Tenebrous Gunnarsdóttir. Anna by Exhibition Chakra Exhibition by Vera Sölvadóttir and and Sölvadóttir Vera by Exhibition Ingþórsdót Fjóla Ingunn by Exhibition Prism Ongoing until March 7. March until Ongoing Exhibition consisting of photography photography of consisting Exhibition -Firnindi Dagsson Jóhannes well- the by paintings featuring Exhibit -Paintings Hringsson Þorri A Y Jarþrúður Karlsdóttir following up on on up following Karlsdóttir Jarþrúður and video dealing with landscape as as landscape with dealing video and surface painting that shifts the viewers’ viewers’ the shifts that painting surface physical. physical. the to visual the from perception 24. Venice. Ongoing until March 7. March until Ongoing Venice. fiction. Ongoing until January 31. January until Ongoing fiction. Ongoing until February 5. February until Ongoing Ongoing until January 31. January until Ongoing to space exploration. Ongoing until until Ongoing exploration. space to tir featuring modern two-dimensional two-dimensional modern featuring tir was presented as a tableau vivant in in vivant atableau as presented was January until Ongoing Sigurbjörnsson. known Icelandic artist Þorri Hringsson. Hringsson. Þorri artist Icelandic known March 14. March Visual stimulation

ear in Postcards in ear | Venue finder GALLERIES &MUSEUMSGALLERIES 13–22. www.nylo.is –GalleryTukt Thurs–Sun from14–18 Thu–Fri 11–17 /Sat–Sun13–16 Tue–Fri 12–18/Sat11–16 Tue–Fri 11–17 /Sat13–17 and The NationalGallery of appointment onweekdays. Vatnsstígur 3–G7 Gerðuberg 3-5 www.galleriagust.is www.myndlist.is www.gerduberg.is www.turpentine.is www.hitthusid.is Gallery Ágúst Gerðuberg Cultural Centre Gallery Turpentine Gallery Kling&Bang Gallery Fold Ingólfstræti 5|F7 Baldursgata 12|F9 Baldursgata Fríkirkjuvegur 7|E8 Klapparstígur 33|G7 Pósthússtræti 3-5|E6 Hverfisgata 42|G7 Hverfisgata 14-16|J9 Rauðarástígur Hafnarfjörður Hafnarfjörður by appointment.www.i8.is this.is/klingogbang/ Iceland Hafnarborg Lost HorseGallery Living ArtMuseum Hitt Húsið Wed–Sat 12–17 Mon–Fri 10–18/Sat11–16 Mon–Thu 11–17 /Wed 11–21/ Weekends from13–19andby Wed, Fri–Sun 13–17 /Thu Sun 14–16 Strandgötu 34, Strandgötu 34, Skólastræti 1|F6 i8 Gallery T R A -

Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculptur Sculptur Sveinsson Ásmundur The Association of Icelandic Vi Icelandic of Association The The Einar Jónsson Museum Museum Jónsson Einar The Room Library The House Culture The Gerðuberg Gerðuberg Kjarvalsstaðir 30 18 18 ONGOING Exhibition of puppets used in a in used puppets of Exhibition was harp the if as sounded “It newly of illustration the of Exhibition like! children the what is This Exhibit featuring Kjarval´s drawings drawings Kjarval´s featuring Exhibit Maidens Warrior -Insights: Kjarval This exhibition showcases contempo showcases exhibition This RH 30 -April 2009 01 May by works of retrospective A new Line. of Shape The Exhibition: Permanent Newcastle - New Y -New Newcastle 26 -February 2009 December 07 Permanent exhibition: exhibition: Permanent -90 Iceland of Archives National of Story -the Nature into A Look Manuscripts Medieval Exhibition: Permanent featur Ólafsdóttir Hafdís by Exhibition Frost 29 4-January January Permanent Exhibition: Permanent 17 2009-January March 28 context of a new age. age. anew of context onwards. and sketches of warrior maidens and and maidens warrior of sketches and 7. as Ásmundur did in his time, but in a in but time, his in did Ásmundur as Ásmundur Sveinsson. The exhibition exhibition The Sveinsson. Ásmundur stranger abroad. Ongoing until March March until Ongoing abroad. stranger rary artists that tackle similar issues issues similar tackle that artists rary presentation of some episodes from from episodes some of presentation award An books. children’s published and Ships of Fancy of Ships and sual Artists sual Völsungasaga. Ongoing until March 15. March until Ongoing Völsungasaga. focuses on abstract works from 1945 1945 from works abstract on focuses building. museum the in years their yearlong performance of send of performance yearlong their weeping” the Icelandic Museum of Natural Natural of Museum Icelandic the ing until March 15. March until ing Ongo illustration. best the for given is boats. Ongoing until April 25. April until Ongoing boats. ing a postcard a week to a random arandom to aweek apostcard ing beauty. winter’s capturing photographs ing History land Museum

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THM- Ásmundur and Our Age Our and Ásmundur THM- 13–17 Tryggvagata 16|D5 Tue–Sun 11–17 Tue–Sun 12–17 Tuesday throughSunday14–18 Tryggvagata 17 |E5 Aðalstræti 17 |D6 The National The NumismaticMuseum The Nordic House Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculp- natmus.is/ Open daily10–17 Open Mon–Fri 13:30–15:30. Open daily10–16 Open daily10–17 Grandagarður 8|C3 - www.ljosmyndasafnreykjavi www.listasafn.is www.nordice.is/ www.listasafnreykjavikur.is Einholt 4|K9 Laugarnestangi 70 Laugarnestangi Listabraut 3 Listabraut Flókagata | K11 Flókagata kur.is Sigurjón ÓlafssonMuseum Museum tography Reykjavík MuseumofPho- Reykjavík MaritimeMuseum Reykjavík CityTheatre Reykjavík ArtMuseum Reykjavík ArtGallery Reykjavík 871+/-2 Kjarvalsstaðir Hafnarhús ture MuseumSigtún Weekdays 12–19/Sat–Sun Suðurgata 41 |C9 41 Suðurgata Sturlugata 5|C11 Sturlugata Skúlagata 28|H6 Skúlagata ork – New Ice –New ork ------The work of sculptor Einar Jónsson Kim Linnet exhibits her 360° panorama Gerðarsafn photos of Iceland. 24 November 2009 - February 20 Reykjavík 871 +/- 2 ART Gerður Helgadóttir Permanent exhibition: Gerðuberg Cultural Centre The Settlement Exhibition 22 November 2009 –March 28 Reykjavík Art Museum GALLERIES & MUSEUMS Kitchen items in the collectors’ Ásmundarsafn corner 2 May 2009 - April 30 Þórarinn Eldjárn and Sigurður Árnason Rhyme exhibit all sorts of kitchen appliances Works by Ásmundur Sveinsson and they have collected over the years. Contemporary Artists. Icelandic Printmakers' Associa- Reykjavík Art Museum tion Gallery Hafnarhús November 12-January 31 28 May 2009 - August 29 Historical Exhibition Erró - Portraits Historical exhibition about printmaking January 7 - February 21 as an art form in Iceland. D15 - Dodda Maggý The Lost Horse Gallery Reykjavík Art Museum 14 November 2009 - ongoing Kjarvalsstaðir Sigurður Þórir Ámundason 9 May 2009 - January 15 Exhibit featuring new drawings and Kjarval - Key Works paintings by Sigurður Þórir Ámunda- 7 November 2009 - January 31 son, an artist who has also produced Högna Sigurðardóttir - Matter and various large murals in downtown Spirit in Architecture Reykjavík. 21 November 2009 - January 31 Mokka Steinunn 11 December 2009 - January 14 21 November 2009 - January 31 Portrait Stoneworks Abstract portraits by Sæþór Örn Reykjavík Maritime Museum Ásmundsson. Current Exhibitions: The Numismatic Museum Living Museum by the Sea; Arterial Permanent exhibition: for Country and City; From Poverty The Central Bank of Iceland and the to Abundance; The Shark – Light and National Museum of Iceland jointly Life Energy; Hidden Craftsman. operate a numismatic collection con- The Reykjavík Museum of sisting of Icelandic notes and coins. Photography Ráðhús Reykjavíkur 26 September 2009 - January 17 Permanent exhibition: André Kertész - MA FRANCE Dulin Himintungl

17 7 Jan. Mar.

A Year in Postcards The Culture House Halldór Ragnarsson does it all. The 28 year old artist has had four solo exhibits both in Iceland and abroad, participated in numerous collaborations, published two poetry collections all while playing bass with the amazing Seabear. He’s gone and done it again. The ASÍ Art Museum presents Halldór Ragnarsson's exhibit “Saxófónn eða Kontór” displayed in Gryfjan. The installation is based on drawings he’s worked on in southern Italy this fall, along with cigarette packages he’s collected and smoked in the last year. Curious about the results? Check it out! LP

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Tryggvagata 15, 6th floor · 101 Reykjavík · Tel. 411 6390 · www.photomuseum.is Opening hours 12–19 mon–fri, 13–17 weekends · ADMISSION FREE Call: +354 511 2600 • Mail: [email protected] • www.bustravel.is The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 For Davíð Oddsson’s warnings, see: http://www.dv.is/frettir/2008/11/10/david-varadi-vid-skuldsetningu-thjodarbusins/ 20 2009: Politics & Life http://www.mbl.is/mm/vidskipti/frettir/2009/03/23/stefndu_fjarmalalifinu_i_haettu/

Article | Marc Vincenz 2009 | Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason, Musician / Poet 2009 | Q&A

A year that began with a strange sense of hope, almost like a twisted From Exploding Range wet dream, gradually but with steady acceleration descended into a dark wet hole (I won't say abyss)—a suffocating mud-bath. And like an amateur magician, the horse-traders of the Icelandic clan-system clumsily, but with good suc- Rovers to Knitted Mittens? cess, diverted our eyes from the things that mattered: the new constitution and the much needed drastic re-thinking of, well…. pretty much everything. 2009: Iceland’s Big Year in Yes, January was a trip-and-a-half, but today it seems as far away as the glow of childhood Christmas. But out of the mundane things that stand out for me from the year that followed are first of all the total lack of changes in the Icelandic government's policies on social issues such International Meltdown, CNN- as immigration and environmental issues, despite giving of the illusion of a left-wing/greenish coalition. Breaking-News-Style The unbreakable suction that Iceland seems to have to the IMF's nips is a mystery of nature, especially since the fund has started to act like an apathetic hamster mother getting ready to ready to eat it's squiggly pink young, because it's easier than ignoring it. Another point of hot-pot chitchat has been Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir's fall from grace, which has been a particularly strange spectacle. Within a few moments she went from being the great future hope of the ever-blue eyed Social Democrats to something resembling a raving hermit. And in the spirit of the traditional hot-pot banter I'm going to pretend that Davíð Oddsson’s muscle flexing as editor of Morgunblaðið and the collapse of Borgarahreyfingin were not un- expected (but I won't spend words on Icerave, other than the fact that it is a hugely underrated compilation of the best Icelandic rave, hardcore and dance music of 1992). Sadly, these are the things that come to mind when scrolling over the year. Dreaming on a fluffy cloud of teargas made me complacent; instead of a constitution we got constipation and Professor even though I would never have believed it at the time, January with its sweet smell of expectancy, unmitigated energy and the deafening clattering of pots and pans now seems like a fairy tale or some 60s myth. Hannes Hólmsteinn 2009 | Þorvaldur Gylfason, Professor, Economics 2009 – Highs and Lows Gissurarson 2009 ended less well than it began. At the beginning of the year there were realistic hopes that Iceland could, with a little help from its friends, pull itself rather quickly On 2009 and painlessly out of the crisis triggered by the collapse of the banks the year before. One of the Grapevine’s most locally discussed The application for EU membership in mid-year signalled that Parliament was at last features of 2009 was our interview with Po- willing to try to clean up its act by proposing to submit to the discipline required of EU members. litical Science professor and Independence Apparently, however, the government mistook the IMF’s willingness to go along with a postpone- Party ideologue/Davíð Oddsson advocate ment until 2010 of tough spending cuts and tax hikes for a sign that the crisis was perhaps not Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson. Entitled ‘The as deep as was feared at first. The government allowed the reconstruction of the failed banks to Architect Of The Collapse?’ the 3.700 word drag on. The pointless and protracted squabbling in Parliament on the Icesave deal with the UK conversation detailed his stance on ideologi- and the Netherlands derailed necessary reforms. The delays have practical consequences. For cal responsibility Iceland’s recent economic one thing, the relaxation of the stringent capital controls that were promised to be temporary has collapse, its apparent causes and what could been put on ice with no relief in sight. be done to rectify the situation (our favourite For the most part of 2009, the reconstruction program supported by the IMF, the Nordic coun- quote: “[...] the tycoons, aided by the President tries, Poland, and the EU was held hostage by an incompetent and corrupt political class which, of Iceland, acquired ownership of all the me- as the National Audit Office disclosed just before the year ended, had received huge chunks of maintained that: ‘Icelanders are knitting their dia in Iceland—except for the Grapevine—and ‘Iceland is no longer a coun- money from the failed banks and other, in many cases undisclosed, sources. The year ended in way out of the downturn.’ Around Christmas simply secured total media power over the eerie uncertainty about whether the President would sign the IceSave bill or not. If he doesn’t, 2006, she overheard men in black discuss- country”). try. It is a hedge fund.’ expect a bumpy ride ahead. ing taking over an airline, but two years later, We would be lying if we said we particu- —Man from the IMF suppos- she was drinking tea made from wild berries larly agreed with Hannes’ interpretation of the while admiring her friend’s recycled-curtain world, but we would also be lying if we said it edly speaking to Michael Lew- handbags. She quotes an old Icelandic proverb: didn’t interest us. In that spirit, we asked him to ‘Necessity teaches a naked woman to spin,’ and 2009 | Anarchist Collective / Organisation name us the high- and low points of 2009. is, Vanity Fair, March 2009 suggests that the kreppa has become a ‘timely reminder of thrift’ and good old fashioned During this past year it seemed every interna- What were the values. It has been said before, but perhaps if Aftaka tional journalist in the world had a gripe with highpoints of 2009? the Alþingi learned how to knit, they might Iceland. Many, such as Vanity Fair’s Michael The economic collapse entailed a rebellion that reached its peak in January and Davíð Oddsson’s brilliant speech at the bian- approach their decisions with a little more… Lewis or the New Yorker’s Ian Parker, claimed brought the authorities a fear of losing power. It brought the confused public a fear of nual general meeting of the Independence thrift? insider knowledge; others relied on hearsay of full-scale riots and chaos. It brought the police a fear of losing control of the situation. Party in the spring of 2009, where he answered Roger Boyes’ ‘Meltdown Iceland’ is one an even more dubious nature; but then, the It brought the right-wing a needless fear of fundamental changes, but brought the left- his critics, cogently and convincingly. It is of numerous ‘Iceland in Kreppa’ books that possible demise of a first-world nation (No. wing a hopeless hope for fundamental changes. To us—who never shouted "Unfit Gov- the height of injustice that the only man who came out in 2009. In contrast to Michael Lewis’ 1 on the UN Development Index just a year ernment!" rather "Lethal Government" (by that meaning all governments)—it brought warned against the expansion of the banks, hypothesis that Iceland fell due to arrogance, earlier) was certainly worthy of international a timely smile, a hateful grin and the tiniest fighting chance for decent confrontation. both publicly, and more strongly privately, and Boyes, a correspondent for The Times, con- headlines. In 2009, elves and huldufólk were The elections in the spring managed to kill a part of the rebellion, at least for a against their reckless behaviour should be- cludes that Iceland jumped head-first into a not getting much attention. while. But certainly not all of the resistance was pacified and a lot of the collapse's and come a scapegoat in the aftermath of the bank global economic culture which it had no way of Virtually all the major media had a stab: rebellion's results come up in our mind when we reflect on the year of 2009. We could collapse. comprehending. He maintains that the Icelan- The Times, The New York Times, The Finan- mention the squatting of Vatnsstígur 4, the voting booth shitter and the forceful pro- Davíð Oddsson is the only person who dic business community is somewhat akin to a cial Times, BBC, CNN. Every week something tests against the government's refugee policies, the systematic attacks on the property comes with flying colours out of the Icelan- society run on African tribal lines: ‘There is a new unfolded: the first openly gay Prime Min- of business people and politicians, the ever-worsening financial situation of energy dic debacle. He is the only one who resisted feeling that there are more chiefs than Indians ister, the departure of McDonalds, open season and aluminium companies, and indoor conflicts between the police and the authorities. the oligarchs that contributed so much to the …the will of the state can easily be replaced by for whales, WikiLeaks’ secret banking docu- And all the analysis and critique that has gone on since the collapse. We could mention downfall of Iceland. Well-known (or notori- the will of the political clan.’ He proposes, in ments, Davíð Oddsson as editor of Morgun- all possible symptoms of the worsening status of the predominant system, ideological ous) media personalities like Egill Helgason, fact, that Davíð Oddsson did not understand blaðið; the list goes on. For many of us 2009 has as well as practical. for example, did not want to take sides in the that you need to modernise the political system been like knowing you have terminal cancer But what clearly sticks out is the left-wing government's exposure of its own nature. And not 2004 struggle between Davíð Oddsson and the before you modernise the economy. and every doctor you consult has an alternative the nature of left-wing governments but the violent nature of all authorities. Its work and behav- oligarchs about the control of the media; they For months after Jóhanna Sigurðardót- theory: IMF or no IMF? Icesave or Iceslave? EU iour so far have proved the theory stating that it does not matter what political party one votes for, said publicly that the court cases against the tir’s PM appointment, media all over the world or no EU? Euro, Dollar or Krona? There are the government always wins. It warms up our heartstrings to hear people who are unfamiliar with oligarchs were “boring.” were extolling her as an icon in world politics; enough theories, counter-theories, conspiracy us cursing all possible forms of authority. It is a sign proving what our struggle has accomplished, not only that she is a woman, but particularly theories to fill the entire university library, and and that if those in power continue their business-as-usual, it is not so unlikely that decent and And the low points? in the fact that she is non-hetero. Iceland Re- there’s not a single expert who hasn’t had a militant confrontation will occur sooner or later—here on this island of forced pacifism. The Icesave-agreement, which the Icelandic view’s own Jonas Moody wrote a piece in Time twirl. Like Chumbawamba said: "Nothing ever burns down by itself / every fire needs a little bit of leftist government made in 2009 with the Brit- Magazine: ‘Iceland Picks the World's First And the numbers the international media help." ish and the Dutch governments. It was in fact Openly Gay PM’. It was suddenly as if the Age has bandied around like boomerangs: a popu- not an agreement; it was a full-scale surrender of Obama was synonymous with the Age of lar one is 504% debt over GDP—although Mi- to the British and the Dutch. Why should Ice- Aquarius, and the corrupt, ego-centric white- chael Lewis maintained that ‘Iceland’s ‘debt is landic taxpayers undertake responsibility for male-Milton-Freidman-world was coming to 2009 in Pictures HÖRÐUR SVEINSSON 850 percent of G.D.P.,’ and that ‘its people are the transactions of private individuals abroad, an end. As if that weren’t enough, the World hoarding food and cash and blowing up Range beyond what is clear and written into law and Economic Forum hailed Iceland as the most Rovers for the insurance.’ Which is it? 504 or international treatises? Why could matters gender-egalitarian society in the world—it had 850? As recently as December 26, the Daily of doubt or interpretation not be referred to much the same pungent whiff as President Mail stated, ‘Glitnir owes Royal Bank of Scot- courts, either in Iceland or in England? Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. land £ 500 million,’ and that Glitnir’s creditors The British were not held culpable for their And how does the international media feel are claiming in excess of £ 20 billion—bear outrageous behaviour during the banking cri- about Iceland now? Well, they know about its in mind folks, she’s only one of the three sis when they refused to save only one Brit- potential as a green, geothermal, non-carbon lumbering reptiles—3.8 billion Euros for Ic- ish bank, namely the one owned by Icelandic emitting once-upon-a-time first-world country. esave seems a pittance in comparison. So how Kaupthing; and when they put (on a govern- Generally I would say, they’re baffled—stupe- much—in total, does Iceland really owe?—and ment website) Landsbankinn on a list of ter- fied, and, just like the rest of us, rolling into to whom?—and why? When some of us are rorist organisations, alongside Al Qaeda and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius with their scratching together ISK 1000 to buy the special the Taliban. It is clear that the British caused pants down and nowhere to pee. In the legend- at Hamborgarabúllan, it truly makes your head much of the damage, or fall in the worth of the ary words of Frank Zappa: spin. Give a journalist a number and they’ll Icelandic banks. ‘Don't be a naughty Eskimo / Save your turn it into a golden cow. Another low point was the violence that money, don't go to the show / Well I turned In an article from December 3, also in the drove the former government (a spent force as around and I said oh, oh oh / And the northern Daily Mail, Mary Ellen Synon writes: ‘The Ice- it was) from power at the end of January. Ice- lights commenced to glow / And she said, with landers may have been scared out of their wits land should be ruled by reason, not violence. a tear in her eye / Watch out where the huskies last year, but they…have decided that the most A third low point was that the International go, and don't you eat that yellow snow.’ valuable thing they have left is their indepen- Monetary Fund turned, in Iceland, out to be a As my grandmother often said, ‘For dence. They are not willing to trade it, not even hand collector for the British and Dutch gov- heaven’s sake don’t believe everything you for the possibility of a bail-out by the European ernments (in the Icesave-controversy), instead read,’ and, bless her, she used to read the Daily Central Bank.’ of serving its original and constitutional pur- Mail. In a podcast for the BBC World Service, pose. Sigrún Davíðsdóttir, a London-Icelander, HAUKUR S MAGNÚSSON The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 21 2009: Politics & Life

2009 | Ari Eldjárn, Comedian / Copywriter 2009 | Paul Nikolov, Grapevine.is News Editor News | Paul Nikolov 2007 Wasn’t Such A Bad Year Iceland's Year in Politics The Year In Brief Icelanders’ national identity changed a lot in 2009. It was the year Icelanders went from craving the outside world’s attention to getting hugely worried about outside This past year in Iceland has parliamentary reactions. Or the lack thereof. October attention. This was the year that concepts like “the international community” sud- probably been most memorable Remember Paul Ramses, the Kenyan asy- Leftist-Green MP denly became known—I don’t remember hearing that one before, and it has never on the political front. The usual lum seeker who was deported to Italy in 2008, Ögmundur Jónas- meant a thing to me. It was the year that our national identity shifted completely and went upside stories that get us international separated from his wife and infant child here son resigned from down—from “Iceland, best in the world,” to “Iceland, barest in the world” headlines—whaling, music, anything in Iceland? Remember the public outcry that his post as Minister I am unsure how it can be summed up in a word. Until now, the best thing Icelanders knew about green energy—all took a back seat to the rightfully arose from this, and the politicians of Health, citing was when they were mentioned in the international press. 2009 was the year Icelanders really January Revolution. After months of weekly who spoke openly about what a horrible thing irreconcilable differ- started worrying about bad press. It’s a key factor behind most of what’s been discussed this year. protests, often to the derisive laughter of oth- this was? Yeah. Many of those same politicians ences with regards Everyone keeps saying the same thing; they say we’re out of touch with the outside world, “the ers that Icelanders have no stamina for sus- were the ones who rejected a bill that I co-sub- to the Icesave deal. international community”... it’s like a new motto. Few people realise what being in a community tained protest, the centre-right coalition of the mitted which would have made the changes to This led to tensions This issue, our 101st, was a real toughie to pull off. Our designer had envisioned some crazy sculpture project for the cover that we had to abandon at the last minute because the logistics were just plain impossible to manage. However, we managed to pull off this nice graphic at the very last moment – it’s meant to celebrate a hundred Grapevines. HSM with other nations entails, really, but now no one knows where we stand, in regards to Scandina- Independence Party and the Social Democrats refugee law that would have kept Ramses in running high within via or the whole outside world. was forced to dissolve. A couple of months lat- Iceland. I guess these MPs have gotten more the party, but in the It was a year of great distrust. The entire nation grew tremendously sceptical towards each er, when new elections were held, Icelanders consistent, as they haven't uttered a word end the waters calmed for the time being. other. Still, not a lot seems to have changed. I hear Christmas shopping didn’t go down at all this voted a leftist government into power, for the about refugee law reform now. Representatives from Icelandic, British and year and is pretty much the same as in 2007. But the discourse changed a whole lot. first time in the history of the republic. Dutch authorities signed an agreement Lastly, I would like to note that I don’t think 2007 was such a bad year at all. It’s like we decided Those were heady times, weren't they? Another revolution? over Icesave, over a year after the collapse in 2009 that 2007 was a sort of ground zero for our woes; we keep bringing it up, comparing ev- After nearly two decades of bowing to the Human trafficking, on the other hand, looks of Landsbanki. Meanwhile, parliament's erything to it, using it as a curse word. “The year we all went mad.” I really don’t think it was that nearly feudal stranglehold the conservatives like it's finally getting the attention it deserves. opposition parties continued to battle the bad a year for regular people. They don’t need to worry about having bought too much stuff then had over the country, the Icelandic people Members of parliament recently approved a basic precepts of the deal, citing among or whatnot. I really don’t think anyone did. said, “No. You ruined us; you have revoked resolution to legislatively protect women of other things the unusually high 5.5% your right to rule.” But more than just a shift foreign origin from domestic violence, and interest rate to be paid on former deposi- from right to left was the hope that now, having police started focusing a lot more attention tors' returns. Also grabbing international 2009 | Dr. Gunni, Journalist / Musician seen what can be accomplished, the average on human traffickers. We can only hope, then, headlines McDonald's closed its doors in Icelander would finally realise the real advan- that they'll also be extending their efforts into Iceland, saying it was unlikely it will ever tage of living in a small, tight-knit community— educational campaigns, informing buyers of return. Bored Of Being An Icelander that direct democracy can happen. This was women (in particular, guys who like to go to underlined when a new party comprised of strip clubs) that they are taking part in a night- November Look inside for your free copy of Grapevine Airwaves Mini! One maybe expected some change, as there was a revolution in Iceland. In retrospect Featuring comprehensive festival a collection of activists, the Civic Movement marish practice. We'd hate to think the police coverage, tips and trix from the stars, reviews, interviews and the chance to win the ultimate Cases of swine flu Airwaves experience! JóiKjartans Photo: it maybe wasn’t anything. The Independence Party left office and the Left-Greens YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND (Borgarahreyfingin), at the time of the spring would actually be inconsistent; giving great Issue 16 – October 9 - November 5 – 2009 + COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! began to increase www.grapevine.is come instead, then everyone stopped being angry. Nothing happened. Then we elections only a few months old, managed to attention to the demand side of drugs, but EVERYTHING into the double digits. MUST GO! humped on Icesave for around ten months, so you really just stopped following the 7.699$ win four seats in parliament. virtually ignoring the demand side of human Lonely Planet’s Best 9. 699$ news or expecting anything. Right now I hope that the Icesave bill gets vetoed and Eu- Hope was certainly alive and well. This was trafficking. in Travel 2010 named rope goes crazy, invades Iceland and takes over. I have grown bored of being an Icelander; maybe months before the Civic Movement would end The year to come is certainly going to be ENERGY OPPORTUNITY #1 Iceland among the GREAT FOR HEAVY INDUSTRY! CAPACITY - 690 MW - Great expansion potential it’s fine to just call the whole thing off. Max flow - 144 m3/s Avg flow - 110 m3/s up dissolving after an embarrassing e-mail an eventful one. While the Icesave bill was Energy production - 4.600 Gigawatt hours/year top ten Best Value Average inflow - 31 m3/s Everything has just been kind of ridiculous. You would have thought that in a situation such leak revealed inter-party bickering that led passed into law on the second to last day of destinations for as this one everyone could just unite in rowing our little boat to safe shores. Instead, everyone to one of their MPs leaving and the party re- the year by a wafer-thin majority of 33 MPs to tourists. The National In the midst of a harsh economic recession, Icelanders have started selling off their valuable energy resources to continues paddling their own pathetic little cause, so our boat just goes in circles and the whole international corporations at KREPPA-rates. Grapevine's Catharine Fulton investigates the sale of HS Orka to Canada's inventing itself (at least in name, anyway), and 30, the president held off on signing it right Assembly—a bold Magma Energy, how the deal went down and if it is an indication of what's to come. PG. 12. nation gets seasick. months before opinion polls showed that the away. The following Monday, he announced he experiment in direct To retain your sanity you turn off all the media—radio, TV, internet—everything. And when you majority of Icelanders would, in fact, vote the had vetoed the law, refering to national refer- democracy—was held this month, drawing dare turn it back on and they start yapping on about Icesave you’ll turn to the zombie-pop station conservatives back into power if parliamentary endum instead. Cue one furious government in thousands of Icelanders to submit ideas and listen to Lady GaGa. elections were held again. (the news was just as much a surprise to them on where the country should be headed, It was easy being angry at the Independence Party. All of the major players from the collapse as it was the rest of the world), a dumbstruck what makes the country distinct, and what are rooted there, and you really want to kick their arses. Now they are back with their yapping and Breathtaking hypocrisy opposition, a seething mad foreign press er- issues are most important to the average expect us to believe everything will be totally great if we just hand the reigns back to them. So I I'll repeat what I said in the news story I wrote roneously declaring that Iceland intended to Icelander. Corruption, according to both don’t know. Mainly, I’m tired. on the Icesave bill: the hypocrisy of the Inde- refuse to pay, and a nation left with finding out Icelanders polled and according to foreign Looking back to January of 2009, when the shit hit the fan and everything was happening, pendence Party is breathtaking. Watching the what it means when you get what you ask for. observers, was on the increase. those were some spirited times. I read over what I wrote back then—I blogged like a maniac. I final vote streamed live to my browser from At the time of this writing, only 41% of the na- blogged about New Iceland and exciting new ways of doing things and blah blah blah... then real- government television, and seeing one con- tion agrees with the president's veto. Tentative ity took over, the cold, dark Icelandic winter and Christmas stress and somehow... let’s just say I’m December Look inside for your free copy of Issue 18 Grapevine's Xmas Xmas 09 SPECIAL SPECTACULAR servative after the other pour scorn and ridi- www.grapevine.is plans schedule the referendum to take place Special Spectacular! The merry Christmas men that are plastered all over the Grapevine this issue just happen to be some of the city’s top restaurateurs. Chef Úlfar Eysteinsson runs Þrír Frakkar, Reykjavík’s best loved fish restaurant (Baldursgata 14) and Tómas Tómasson operates the Iceland’s all-time favourite hamburger dive, Hamborgarabúlla Tómasar (various locations). Why do we love having them pose for photos and then putting those photos on our covers? Because they are very awesome people, and their food has given us a lot of pleasure, for instance. But also because they sport these cool, long beards. Why did they grow Featuring comprehensive these beards? Úlfar: I was being interviewed on the radio last May, and I happened to sport a beard. The journalist asked me why I was so hairy, and I replied that I was protesting the Central Bank’s way-too-high interest rates, that I would not shave until it was down to a one-figure information on everything to number... Tómas: I heard Úlfar on the radio, talking about whale meat as usual, and he started talking about his protest. I decided this was something I wanted to get behind, so I called him up immediately afterwards – my friend of 40 years – and told him I would join him in his protest. I’ve been growing a beard do with the Icelandic Holiday since the end of May now, and Úlfar since the beginning of May. They’re pretty hefty beards by now.

Did you envision having to grow your beards this long? Do you Tensions rise as expect to cut them anytime soon?

Úlfar: I didn’t suspect it would take season, complete Holiday this time, but we’ve still had some progress. A year ago, the interest rates were at 18%, they’re down to 11% now. Once they go down by 1.5%, the beards are gone!

Tómas: They’ll announce the new interest rates on December 10th. I am not convinced they will go below 10% then, but I imagine it will opening hours and a great happen next year. I hope they do. We hear you’re planning to do some fun Christmas stuff with those beards...

Úlfar: Yes, we acquired 1.000 decks of playing cards from Icelandair, and a mysterious benefactor sponsored 1.000 candles from Sólheimar. We Úlfar’s Halibut w/Langoustine (serves two) Tómas’ grill-charred leg of lamb (serves many) are in the clouds about this. We’re glad the year is over. The whole of it went towards this Icesave bullshit, which is only really the tip You’ll need: flour, spices, two halibut fillets (around 200 grams each), two large You’ll need: a filleted leg of lamb (femur intact), BBQ sauce of choice (“Any brand, in the process of gift-wrapping the article on knitting your langoustine (split at the middle), cream, white wine and some Icelandic butter. almost all BBQ sauce is good”), spices. mall and are planning to dress up in “Coat the halibut in flour and then fry it in hot butter on one side for around two and “Marinade the leg of lamb in the BBQ sauce for 24 hours, preferably at room Santa gear and deliver those goods a half minutes. Then you flip the fish and place the langoustine split-down in the butter. temperature. Salt and pepper according to taste, then throw it on your barbecue for 45 to children at the local children’s Spice with BBQ seasoning and add garlic and salt according to taste. minutes to an hour – the more burnt, the better. You’ll have to keep turning it from the Splash some white wine over the pan before adding the cream (250+ mls.). The start – eventually it will start to burn, as I said, but that’s good. Let it burn! The charred hospital and kindergartens around cream will come to a boil, making the gravy nice and thick. If it’s too thick, add some flesh is really good. Keep your BBQ sauce of choice on hand throughout the process, so town, spreading some Christmas more white wine. Serve with boiled potatoes and salad, if you will, squeeze a slice of you can douse the leg in it each time you turn. spirit. lemon over your plate according to taste.“ Serve with mushroom cream sauce and potatoes. For the potatoes, you should boil them first and cool them down, then cut them into 4-5 pieces each (without peeling Photo by Baldur Kristjáns cule on the people cleaning up the mess the on the 20th of February. Unless and until the own Xmas presents! them!) and fry them in olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley.” YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND the youth groups of Issue 18 – December 4 - January 7 – 2010 www.grapevine.is + COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! of this whole iceberg. Everyone just keeps going crazy over everything without us ever reaching conservatives made, was truly rage-inducing. law is killed by simple majority, the current Ic- both ruling parties, Eat, Drink & Be Merry any sort of conclusion. Speaking of which, the economy has also esave law still stands. Even so, 2010 will - to the Young Social You could add that I’ve wanted to somewhat blindly stand behind [Minister of Finance, been a sort of partisan banner, with conserva- the greatest dismay of the Icelandic people Democrats and the head of the Left-Green party] Steingrímur J. Sigfússon and back him up. I still haven’t lost tive opponents frequently citing it as an exam- themselves - in all likelihood be dominated by Young Leftist-Greens, faith that he knows what he’s doing. He isn’t the one that sank the boat, and he seems keen on ple of the leftists' incompetence. That is, if you Icesave. God help us. strongly criticize rowing forward. ignore the fact that since the leftists came to proposed cuts to power, unemployment has dropped (taking a the country's social

modest rise in recent weeks though), taxes still Christmas is upon us. While a lot of things are pretty wrong in the world right now, welfare system, we feel the only sensible thing to do is indulge in some good old-fashioned Holiday indulgence. 2009 | Dóri DNA, Student / Rapper / Comedian remain the lowest in Scandinavia even after most notably cuts tax hikes were passed, and Iceland's economic to maternity leave. Public dialogue with rating by international financial institutions regards to foreigners ends on a mixed note: The Same Kickbacks & Knickknacks such as Fitch has been steadily if modestly ris- while the Ministry of Justice has decided I learned this year that money is a forward—open, not closed. ing. that creating a think tank designed to see joke and if you have it, you should Hopefully, this generation will step out of how far they can supervise Iceland's foreign spend it immediately. the current ruins of Iceland. We maybe have Troubling trends residents and still stay within the law is the Was I surprised by two terms left of the rotted woollen socks of Of course Icesave and the economy weren't answer to the human trafficking problem, anything? Yes, how forgetful Ice- the old generations. But who knows. Maybe the only stories on the political front. Some a resolution is submitted in parliament landers are. The whole hate-song Icelanders our ideals will fall flat and we will all fall into troubling trends in the area of immigration calling for legislative changes that would sang in front of Parliament was forgotten and the same old partisan party politics that have and refugee rights have come up as well. Cries give greater protections to foreign women suddenly it was alright to have Davíð Oddsson plagued Iceland for decades. The same old for reform in refugee law have been getting who fall victim to domestic violence. A editing the most prestigious newspaper and arguments, the same kickbacks and knick- stronger with each passing month, and will new article appearing in USA Today goes all of the sudden we have people claiming that knacks. I still maintain a hope that from the likely not abate. Apparently, people fleeing down a list of countries "poised to be where “finally the right person is manning the decks,” rubble of this mess we’re living through a totalitarianism and war aren't exactly keen on the action is" in 2010, and names Iceland while we were very evidently making fools of voice of a new generation will sound, clear and being deported without their cases reviewed, among them. But the biggest story of the ourselves globally. strong. It can happen. being sent to notorious human rights violators month—if not the year—is Icesave. With 70% I was surprised that partisan party politics in Greece with little reason given by Icelandic of Icelanders polled in two separate polls could prevail in a crisis like this, and that ev- authorities beyond “because we can.” Minister opposed to the Icesave bill's passage, and eryone has a gleam in their eyes and wants to of Justice Ragna Árnadóttir doesn't seem too nearly 50,000 signatures gathered on an better position when it’s evident that a national motivated to do anything about refugee law, online petition urging the president not to government of all parties working towards the but it certainly has been interesting seeing sign it into law, months of bitter wrangling same goals must be formed. Everyone knows within the halls of parliament lead to a that if we could just agree on some very basic squeeked-by victory for the bill, 33 MPs in things, we could ride out smoothly. I am sur- favour and 30 against. prised that people are so intent on maintaining The president in a move that surprised the party lines and the party system. gamblers the world over, effectively trolled The politician of 2009 is clearly Minister of the international community and vetoed the Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon. He took on Icesave bill, referring it instead to national the hardest and worst government post there referendum. Prime Minister Jóhanna is and is daily subject to a shitstorm of allega- Elegant surroundings Sigurðardóttir countered that according tions and accusations, yet manages to stand to Icelandic law, the Icesave deal is still in firm while doing a good job. We still need a Superb cuisine effect until a national referendum is held leader, someone that will talk courage into the that defeats the law by simple majority. people, and I am not talking about a master She emphasized that the government will of rhetoric here. Someone with novel, forward Modern comfort Preserving quality honor its commitments, and that the ruling thinking ideas, ambition and charisma. Some- coalition will hold. 2010 promises to be a one that can get the people behind him, and to is our business year possibly as tumultuous as 2009; maybe realise what they truly want. And one thing’s even more so. for certain, it ain’t [Independence Party chair- Open daily for lunch and dinners man] Bjarni Benediktsson. Special off er on Monday As for our generation, we’ve done nothing. We’ve been spectators to this spectacle, may- and Tuesday – 3 course dinner be banging on pots and pans to express our for only 4200 ISK. rage, but that’s the extent of it. Our generation has no representative or proponent anywhere Reservation: tel. 552 5700, in the nation’s power structure. Oh, there are e-mail: [email protected] young politicians, but they somehow manage to be and act older than the oldest of the old politicians. How I look forward to the day when our generation can step up with its voice—not the one spoon-fed to it from birth, but the one Bergstaðastræti 37 s. 552 5700 it has been slowly developing over the years. [email protected] www.holt.is Legalising cannabis, looking forward, thinking The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 22 2009: Politics & Life

2009 | Pawel Bartozsek 2009 | Þórður Snær Júlíusson, Journalist 2009 in Pictures BALDUR KRISTJÁNS Mathematician / Teacher at Reykjavík University An Invitation To Historical Forgery

The first thing that comes to mind about 2009, as a sort of milestone event for the Not A Lot To year, is the hiring of Davíð Oddsson as editor for Morgunblaðið. It can reasonably be likened to a bankster being appointed to the Supreme Court to rule on his own Celebrate case. Fittingly, the historical analyses that have been appearing in Morgunblaðið over the past few months seem to be put forth by a man that has a great interest in how history is What I notice the most is that a written, and that it will be written a certain way— entirely ignoring on how far from reality those lot of nationalism, even chauvin- writings are. ism, has been spreading over the Aside from that, Davíð has never worked a real job in the media, and thus has neither the country. One could see it relatively knowledge nor the experience to lead any part of it. It is unfair to the journalists of Morgunblaðið early in the year, and it becomes very to work under a man that knows the answers to most of their questions, but neither can nor will apparent in regards to the whole Icesave de- answer them. As a former employee of Morgunblaðið I find it very sad to witness how the news- bacle. The prevailing attitude may be likened paper has evolved over the past few months, and the circumstances its able professionals are to that of a person that breaks into a garage, forced to work in. Alas, private companies can hire whomever they want to hire. steals a car and totals it, along with many oth- Another great point of interest is the information we obtained on how insurance company ers, on the way out, then claims that it’s all the Sjóvá was handled. Its former owners seem to have treated the company like a piggy bank; one fault of the garage’s lax security, and that the they eventually found new use for as a garbage bin once it was all emptied out. The results were road rails weren’t strong enough. that the state had to supply Sjóvá with 16 billion ISK. That is an incredibly high amount when you Hardheaded Icelanders have managed consider the fact that their claims reserve fund once amounted to around 22–23 billion ISK. They to present this idea that everything that hap- nearly managed to empty it. Investor group Milestone, who owned Sjóvá for two years, managed pened is Gordon Brown’s fault, or the foreign- to increase the company’s debt by 40 billion ISK in that time. During these two years, the shame- ers’ fault, or lax EEA regulations’ fault. I think less owners didn’t hesitate to reimburse themselves 19 billion ISK in dividends. The investigation this is a questionable interpretation of our in Sjóvá’s affairs and the Special Prosecutor’s raid on their premises last summer are thus clearly woes. I think our only defence should be that one of the year’s main events. we cannot really afford paying these amounts, Lastly, I would like to mention the bankruptcy of DeCODE Genetics in November as a very or that they are simply too high. To maintain memorable event, especially in a historical context. When DeCODE stock went up for bids on with a straight face that we are in no way re- the so-called Grey Market around a decade ago, it marked the start of the Icelandic public’s first sponsible for Landsbankinn’s debt is absurd. stock trading-gold digging adventure. Respected people appeared in the media telling people We could ask ourselves what we would think that not buying DeCODE stock would be a grave mistake. Likely, no Icelandic government in if a British bank went heads up and the UK history has gone as far for any company as the one that ensured DeCODE exclusive permits to a government announced every Brit’s savings database made up of the nation’s collective medical histories—adding to that a $ 200 million state account was safe while telling us we couldn’t guarantee. Even though both the database and the state guarantee eventually fell through, the get anything. It is very doubtful that we would state’s promise of both ensured DeCODE’s then VP, the young business-hero Hannes Smárason, take such declarations lightly. was able to register the company to the US NASDAQ-market. DeCODE is to this day the only I am flabbergasted by the party play that Icelandic company that has been listed there. As trading commenced, their stock was valued at went on around the Icesave affair. I find it hard $ 30, but quickly plummeted to next to nothing. For the past few seasons, they were valued well to believe that if any other party—except for under a dollar. maybe The Movement [formerly The Citizen’s Movement]—would be handling Icesave any different than the current government is. I feel 2009 | Íris Erlingsdóttir, Journalist / Writer the parties that filibustered and opposed the deal the hardest are just trying to score politi- cal points, which is understandable to a point. The Humbling of Iceland Still, nobody is going to play hardball with the international community on this one. We have In 2009, Iceland became the poster child of the global economic downturn. The precipitous had some insights into our international rank- collapse of Iceland’s banks and the ensuing popular overthrow of the Independence Party- ing, with our failed bid for the UN Security led government were seen as possible precursors of the fall of Western civilization. Council. It is... very poor. It is perhaps under- Fortunately, the situation in Iceland (and elsewhere) has stabilized—at least for now—and standable that people would initially react by already we are forgetting what exactly led to the kreppa in the first place. Was it the result of claiming that the world is being mean to us, fraudulent investment schemes created by foreign flim-flam artists like Bernie Madoff? George Bush’s and we hate it anyway, but it’s not likely to go fiscal irresponsibility? Hank Paulson’s decision not to rescue Lehman Brothers? The market’s irrational on forever. Perhaps Iceland will be like the US exuberance? Certainly not the policies of Iceland’s Central Bank by Davíð Oddsson, the harebrained business prac- post-9/11, we’ll see a few years of harsh reac- tices of the New Viking raiders, the complete failure of Icelandic regulators, the government’s incompe- tions before settling down into sanity anew. tence, or the absence of sound lending guidelines at the banks. And certainly not the system of nepotism, If we go in the opposite direction, how- cronyism, and political patronage that came to define the business atmosphere in Iceland. ever, I am very afraid. I sometimes worry about As a result of this collective amnesia, we are already seeing the rats emerge from their holes to point things like the EEA agreement, not that the the finger at those who have been stuck with the task of cleaning up their mess. Oddsson is back in the members will oust us, but that say Icesave public eye as the editor-in-chief of Morgunblaðið. The Independence Party is again polling as the country’s goes wrong and we wind up in a business war. most popular political party. Kaupþing refuses to permit outsiders to take over the business empire of Jón A large part of our economy is based on in- Ásgeir Jóhannesson. The banks are still run by much the same people who caused this mess in the first teractions with other nations, and they could place. absolutely squeeze us dry if that were in their The cockiness that characterised Icelanders during the good times has been replaced by anger, more interest. directed at the post-party cleaning crews than the political and financial “elite” whose reckless actions Looking at 2009 from my perspective, have seriously compromised Iceland’s sovereignty. being a right-winger—and a pro-EU one at The world has changed, however. The cockiness that characterised Icelanders during the good times that—there aren’t many things to celebrate. Of is gone. Iceland’s sovereignty has been compromised as a result of the reckless actions of this “elite.” I course, we did apply for membership and I do am not referring to the movement to have Iceland join the European Union. I am referring to the fact that applaud that, but it doesn’t seem like our ap- the positions of authority and nearly all of Iceland’s treasures have been—or soon will be—handed over to plication is faring well at the moment. These foreigners. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been placed in charge of restructuring of Iceland’s econ- guys, Davíð Oddson and his friends, they omy. The investigation of the financial crimes that led to the kreppa is led by Eva Joly, a Norwegian-French played their cards well at the Independence politician. The genetic research firm deCODE—which was probably the best known Icelandic company Parties’ latest national convention and have, abroad—was sold in bankruptcy liquidation proceedings to a consortium of American investment funds. if anything, tightened their grip on the party. The right to exploit geothermal energy in Reykjanes was sold for a pittance to a Canadian company. While their leadership is not direct, and not Despite all of this, however, there are hopeful signs. The kreppa has given rise to a truly independent unquestioned, I do believe that the editor of media—from the website Eyjan to bloggers such as Daði Rafnsson‘s Economic Disaster Area, and Lára Morgunblaðið has a lot to say about what goes Hanna Einarsdóttir—to challenge the privileged class monopoly on the news. A new political party obtained on in the party. This is my estimate of the politi- seats in the Alþingi. A national assembly (Þjóðfundur) was held to try to reach a consensus on how to re- cal climate on the right wing. build our broken society. The Icelandic people have refused to allow the British and Dutch governments to force them to pay for the sins and omissions of the bankers and their own regulators. The outflow of work- ers had stopped, for the most part, and the unemployment rate is slowly descending. The first prosecutions appear imminent. Now that the crazy days of the 00’s appear to be behind us, we have an unprecedented opportunity to redefine ourselves. We’ve been humbled in 2009, but it’s still not clear whether we learned our lesson. The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 23 2009: Music

PRESENTS Looking Back On Another Fine Year Of Music Fuck year-end lists, here’s our THURSDAY 7 JANUARY year-end lists... >> Saktmóðingur and friends

We sorta abhor year-end lists over here at Grapevine HQ. At least when it comes to SATURDAY 8 JANUARY making them. That has always been a task, and whatever we’ve come up with in the past has in retrospect usually struck us as forced, rushed and ill thought out. Plus, be- >> Úlpa and friends ing the ADD kids we are, we tend to change our minds every five minutes: “The Ar- cade who now? Fune-what? The best album of 2004 was totally Kanye West’s College Dropout. No, wait; it was Blood Brothers’ Crimes. Oh, forget it.”

ANYWAY, regardless of our feelings on the matter, year-end lists are always pretty popular, and we must admit we do enjoy perusing them as, ehrm, years end. They help one discover neglected gems, albums that passed by without a sound or one just plain never heard about, especially when those lists aren’t all uniform, vague and heavy on the U2. Fucking U2.

So we decided to compile some year-end lists of our own. And who better to consult about what’s going on in the world of music than the musicians themselves? No one, that’s who (at least since most critics all started regurgitating P4K’s listery)! So we went ahead and contacted some of Iceland’s finest musicians and asked them to write us lists on what had been tickling their ears all year.

You may imbibe the results of that in these following pages. Some musicians wrote a sentence or two about each item, some made fun lists of their favourite concerts or the best places to pick up girls, some numbered their lists, others refused to – it’s all in there.

And, yeah, we had our very own bunch of awesome music critics make up lists of their 2009 favourites, too (OK, we admit it, making lists can be sorta gratifying and fun. And no one consulted Pitchfork, swear to dog!).

In the immortal words of the great John Cage: Happy New Ears.

2009 | Concerts ARTISTS PICK THEIR TOP 5 CONCERTS OF 2009

Lilja Kristín Jónsdóttir (Bloodgroup) Örn Ingi Ágústsson In Áki Ásgeirsson TOP 5 MEMORABLE CONCERTS OF 2009 (Skakkamanage, Seabear, etc) (S.L.Á.T.U.R) Bloodgroup – Iceland Airwaves 09! (The most A Hansen’s at Grand Rokk fun gig in the world!) Entombed at Sódóma Reykjavík (1) Stelkur –February 11th at Hafnarborg XXX Rottweiler - Iceland Airwaves 09 (Classic Micachu And The Shapes at Karamba The band Stelkur from the East of Iceland hits and crazy action!) Sumargleðin tour in Hvammstangi performed unforgettable compositions by Charles Miri – Kaffibarinn, sometime this summer Yo La Tengo in Berlin Ross, the Icelandic nation’s secret weapon. (Can’t remember when, but I do remember that they were great and they smiled through the (2) S.L.Á.T.U.R. – September 5th at the whole show) Viking hotel Berglind Häsler Nordic House Me, The Slumbering Napoleon – Sódóma Performed compositions by the main proponents Reykjavík last summer (incredibly fresh) (Skakkamanage, Létt á bárunni) of artistical aggression in Icelandic music. Viking restaurants Mugison – Rotterdam, December 19th (Stand-up comedy and a concert at the same time 1) Yo La Tengo in Berlin (3) Kría Brekkan – Helgileikur, December Viking live entertainment – it can’t go wrong) The best concert I’ve seen, period. 23rd in the Christmas Village by Laugavegur Viking Souveniers The piece was performed in a musical vending Viking Souveniers Arnljótur Sigurðsson 2) Reykjavík! and Sudden Weather Change, machine made to look like a nomad’s hut, where Herðubreið in Seyðisfjörður Kría connected the audience to the holy umbilical (living legend) It isn’t often that one gets to slamdance with the cord of the mother of god. mayor. Egill S – at Hafnarhúsið. (4) The pots and pans revolution – January Haukur Gröndal with Narodna Muzika – at the 3) múm at HAVARÍ 2009 at Austurvöllur Reykajvík Jazz Festival. I missed their show at Iðnó, but got this cosy A few hundred people banged pots for several Kimono – At NASA, Iceland Airwaves hangover concert instead. days in a spontaneous Icelandic rhythm. Unfor- Skúli Sverrisson & Sería – Þjóðmenningarhúsið tunately, some unscrupulous parties brought Stereo Hypnosis – release concert no.2 at Sódóma 4) FM Belfast in Grundarfjörður drumkits and foreign, cultural Samba rhythms for Reykjavík. I haven’t lost it like this at a concert since I saw the last few days. The Prodigy in my heyday. Benedikt Reynisson (Skátar) (5) Monika Fryčová - Open Springs, February 5) KK & Ellen and all the rest from this wonder- at Listaháskóli Íslands For booking and further information: TOP 5 CONCERTS OF 2009 ful Icelandic Von Trapp family at Herðubreið, International cooperation in a loaded and high Tel.: (+354) 565-1213 1. Ghostigital @ Batteríið, Iceland Airwaves 2009 Seyðisfjörður strung inter-arts display from Friend Of Iceland [email protected] - www.vikingvillage.is 2. Amiina & Seabear @ Bæjarbíó, 28. júlí 2009 Most of all, I would like them to adopt me, really . Monika – who danced on the tip of chaos. Strandgata 55 Hafnarfjordur 3. Gus Gus @ Nikita garden, 26. september 2009 4. Reykjavík! @ Nasa, Iceland Airwaves 2009 5. Caterpillarmen @ Grand Rokk, Iceland Airwaves 2009 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 24 2009: Music

ARTISTS PICK THEIR TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL ALBUMS OF 2009 2009 | Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson 3. Lily Allen – It's Not Me, It's You Þórir Georg Jónsson Juuuuuust a little worse than her début, but still Tanya Pollock (Weirdcore, Metal And Hardcore In 2009 (My Summer As A Salvation Sol- great. Lily snorts all these other British bimbos up Anoymous) dier, Gavin Portland, Deathmetal her nostrils. 4. Fear Factory – Mechanize 1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Ocra Supersquad, etc) Future-Metal for 15 year-old boys. And middle- 2. Micachu – Jewellery aged fatties. Is released this February – but has 3. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were an 1. Cult Ritual – Cult Ritual long since leaked. Eagle 2009 has been an exceptionally good year for 5. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 4. Flaming Lips – Embryonic those into Hardcore punk. I can´t remember the This is the Decemberists’ worst record yet, but it’s 5. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion last time I´ve been as excited about this many still good. And it was a bad year for records. Hardcore records in one year. But the Cult Ritual Lilja Kristín Jónsdóttir album is the best of them all. Black Flag worship Snorri Helgason mixed with artsy noise experiments played in a (Bloodgroup) way only a modern hardcore band could. (Sprengjuhöllin, solo) (no order) 2. Blacklisted – No One Deserves To Be Here Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion More Than Me Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca Antony And The Johnsons – The Crying Light Blacklisted is another Hardcore band that really Girls – Album Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An pushed the boundaries this year. Even though this Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young Eagle album for the most parts is a logical next step for Richard Howley – Truelove’s Gutter Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca them, it surprised and amazed me how cohesive The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of John Fruiscante – The Empyrian and near spotless it is. Being Pure At Heart 3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Haukur Heiðar Hauksson Pavillion Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson The year in Metal? In order to kick the ol’ brain amazing feat for a solid event that by now is leg- What´s there to say about this album? It´s probably (Dikta) cell bundle into gear I got in touch with my end. Too bad people support the booze industry going to be on everyone’s, list and it deserves (I Adapt, Gavin Portland) friend to compare notes. He assured me that with more heart than the bands themselves. Oh to be there. Animal Collective has always been 1) Silversun Pickups – Swoon nothing noteworthy had happened beyond well. ahead of the curve, but this surpassed all my Code – Resplendent Grotesque 2) Brand New – Daisy the Sororicide reunion and Sólstafir releasing All in all, ‘09 was a good year for Icelandic expectations. Moutheater – Ornament 3) Florence and the Machine – Lungs their best work to date. In Hardcore, a hand- metal. Even though these online promos and 4. Intelligence – Fake Surfers Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave 4) Andrew Bird – Noble Beast ful of bands were formed, a plethora of shows snippets leave a lot to be desired, the mate- Propagandhi – Supporting Caste Garage rock/punk is obviously the big trend these 5) Bat for Lashes – Two Suns were played to often-unenthusiastic crowds, and rial holds a lot of promise. And the metalheads Pulling Teeth – Paranoid Delusions | Paradise days and as a result of that we got a lot of cool various releases came out shrouded in “secrecy” upped the ante in regards to show quality. Their Illusions garage-y albums this year. This one is the best in thus never really seeing the light of day. As in: events were better booked, promoted and orga- my opinion. It´s daring and out there, but playful Hallur Kr. Jónsson (Bloodgroup) they were released but pretty much only those nized than ever before. and accessible at the same time. Örn Ingi Ágústsson 1. John Frusciante – Empyrean (By far the best "in the know" knew about them or knew where The punk/hardcore seen saw a fair bit of 5. Urban Blight – More Reality international release of the year) to find ‘em. Indubitably quite common in the noteworthy releases but none as good as Death Hard as nails Agnostic Front influenced Hardcore (Skakkamanage, Seabear, etc) 2. Fever Ray – Fever Ray metal seen as well. Metal Supersquad's Dead Zeppelin. So simple, from Canada. It´s raw, pissed off and intense. They 3. Bat for lashes – Two suns In terms of proper releases, there wasn’t gut wrenching, raw and catchy. Just get it. The may not be the most original band around but 1) Dinosaur Jr. – Farm 4. Flaming Lips – Embryonic a lot to dip your toes in. Sure, it was hard (in a label releasing it, Paradísarborgar Plötur was what they do, they do better than almost everyone 2) Polvo – In Prism 5. Röyksopp – Junior else around. 3) Immortal – All Shall Fall good way) to keep up with bands premiering involved with majority of 2009’s releases, house 4) Sonic Youth – The Eternal demo tracks or studio recordings intended for shows, etc. Releases included Eðli annarra 5) Behemoth – Evangelion Sindri Már Sigfússon (Seabear, future releases, because there were so many of demo (noisy, dirty and aggressive), Dys’ And- Haukur Viðar Alfreðsson Sin Fang Bous) them being posted on-line all the time. But very spyrna (important hxc driven metallic punk (Morðingjarnir) few bands offered anything tangible and a good with socially aware, do-good rallying anthems), Benedikt Reynisson (Skátar) 1. Fever Ray – Fever Ray portion of them seem to be flukes or projects Tentacles of Doom's Dansað við lík (80s post 1. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Ocra 2. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca 1. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke that hardly play live at all. punk inspired, like a cross between The Wipers 2. Micachu - Jewellery 3. Grizzly Vear – Veckatimest I know, I know, it came out in 2008. But hey, I first 3. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an 4. Anthony And The Johnsons – The Crying Light Naturally, I've probably forgot to mention some and X but more lose and chaotic). Fuck. They are heard it in 2009, and it’s the best! Eagle 5. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion "releases" so obscure only the local message selling it cheap, so buy this batch before they are 2. Prodigy – Invaders Must Die 4. Flaming Lips - Embryonic board warriors heard about them. Bastard re- out of print forever. For me, getting a new Prodigy album – let alone 5. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion leased Dementia and Filth, which you can now Two young bands took the cake as the most such a good one – is like for your dad getting a obtain a copy of at their shows. You can also active ones. The very young Logn impressed new Steely Dan record. download it at Gogoyoko. Claim to fame: funny people with their savage and grinding fury, song titles. backed by intricate drumming. Not only that. Carpe Noctem is a really good modernised Barely had the band been formed when they ARTISTS PICK THEIR TOP 5 ICELANDIC ALBUMS OF 2009 (but not sterilized) Black Metal band that, like had a split out with Manslaughter (not so im- any other Icelandic BM band, doesn’t play out pressive, but fun), dozens of shows under their Þórir Georg Jónsson Berglind Häsler Bóas Hallgrímsson (Reykjavík!) much. They released a self-titled CD, with- belts, two t-shirts... Quite impressive. They are (My Summer As A Salvation Soldier, (Skakkamanage, Létt á bárunni) (TOP 7 - no order) out bothering to include information on their already working on new recordings. Gavin Portland, Deathmetal Supersquad, Ben Frost – By The Throat MySpace as to how and where to get the damn The second young-ish band is Muck, Hildur Guðnadóttir – Without Sinking etc) 1) múm – Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know thing. Of course. Claim to fame: a member of though their climb has been a gradual one. Morðingjarnir - Flóttinn mikli 2) kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People the band used to play in Thunder Lesbians. Their first release, Vultures, showed the boys múm - Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know 1. Tentacles of Doom – Dansað við lík. 3) Prins Póló - Einn Heima Naturally. effortlessly scoring a soundtrack for angst and Prins Póló – Einn heima Tentacles of Doom are my favourite band around. 4) Egill S – Egill S Legendary Death Metal band Sororicide re- misery, albeit not the tightest one ever. The sub- Snorri Helgason – I’m Gonna Put My Name On It´s as simple as that. Dark and melodic post punk 5) Bloodgroup – Dry Land formed for a couple of shows and even released sequent demo sees them improve in all areas. Your Door influenced by the proggier side of 80s hardcore. an EP, Deathless, that collects three songs from The future looks bright for one of Iceland’s best Sudden Weather Change – Stop! Handgrenade In Cannot recommend this enough. the old days that are hard to find. Thus, it wasn’t up 'n' coming bands. The Name Of Crib Death ‘nderstand? 2. Kimono –Easy Music For Difficult People. Snorri Helgason a bad idea at all. Let’s hope they write new ma- Celestine threatened to release something, Kimono just get better and better with every terial, because these guys (some of whom may demos were made that shows the band at its album they release. Some might think that losing (Sprengjuhöllin) now be found in pompous indie pop bands) out- most raging while retaining the rough and or- a bass player would create a gap in their sound, Lilja Kristín Jónsdóttir shredded the mighty Entombed a few months ganic heaviness of their last outing. Raw and Egill S – Egill S but it´s quite the opposite. Kimono have never ago, during the latter’s second trip to Iceland, unruly enough for the hardcore crowd, yet heavy Hjálmar – IV (Bloodgroup) sounded this good. which was not such a triumphant one. and tight enough for the metalheads, the band‘s Hjaltalín – Terminal 3. Me, The Slumbering Napoleon –The Bloodgroup – Dry Land (but of course) Gordon Riot released the uneventful yet future looks interesting. Sigga Toll & Heiðurspiltar – Á ljúflingshól Bloody Core Of It Hjálmar – IV nicely executed Dirt 'n' Worms. It’s been get- Gavin Portland‘s heavily delayed Hand In Kids playing noisy indy rock. Makes me think of Snorri Helgason – I'm Gonna Put My Name On Skátar – Goth Báðum Megin ting nice reviews, so check it out. I was never too Hand With Traitors, Back To Back With Whores Polvo, Harvey Milk and I’m being good. Heavy and Your Door Sudden Weather Change - Stop! Handgrenade In keen on the young people‘s Kerrang! in them still hasn’t seen the light of day. I hear the no- aggressive and really awesome. The Name Of Cribdeath ´Nderstand? but they seem to be moving away from it, and show of this impressive collection of songs, 4. Dys –Andspyrna + Ísland brennur Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson Sykur – Frábært eða Frábært that‘s a good thing. Iceland’s anarcho punk legends. A "new" EP recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge) in his God recorded about five years ago, but finally released (I Adapt, Gavin Portland, Grape- The now dysfunctional Munnríður barfed City studio, is largely due to the bands indepen- this year with their first album added on as bonus vine writer) Haukur Heiðar Hauksson out the hard-birth Ásdís Rán EP, named after dent stance and stubbornness. Or so I’ve heard. tracks. If you´re into punk rock, this album is a (Dikta) the Playboy hopeful model. She didn‘t like the Hark came out of nowhere with a stellar honours. The release didn‘t impress her, nor did must. Blood Group - Easy music for difficult people 1) Dikta – Get it Together :) demo of noisy and nasty Metalcore of the mid 5. Sólstafir – Köld Death Metal Supersquad - Dead Zeppelin 2) Ourlives – We Lost the Race it me. 90s best calibre. Find my review in a GV back The definitive Icelandic metal band. On this album Dr. Gunni - Inniheldur 3) Lights on the Highway – Amanita Muscaria Retrön’s Fantasy Metal meets computer issue for a more thorough inspection. they take their sound to a new level, stepping Kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People 4) Ólafur Arnalds – Found Songs game soundtracks meets Fucking Champs won Bummer is another new band that released further away from their Black Metal roots and in a Solstafir - Köld 5) Svavar Knútur – Kvöldvaka over a healthy number of people this year. Their the super obscure Noise demo. A punk band in more gothic direction. I´ll be very surprised if this CD Swordplay And Guitarslay is attention wor- its own right, but mind the shoegaze influences album doesn´t end up on a lot of peoples list. thy. An ambiguous effort, musically and visu- and not so subtle Joy Division and Beat Happen- Arnljótur Sigurðsson Hallur Kr. Jónsson ally, to say the least. ing ones, aided with a very lonely and winter-y Haukur Viðar Alfreðsson Wormlust became the talk of the über-un- feel. It’s pretty special. (living legend) (Bloodgroup) (Morðingjarnir) derground town with the release of demo and a Akureyri's Buxnaskjónar kept impressing split with Ireland's Haud Mundus. An impres- me with the Þriðja heimstyrjöldin home record- Berndsen – Lover in the Dark 1. Bloodgroup – Dry Land (The best album of the sive Black Metal project with twisted ambience ings. It’s a reassuring feeling to have our very 1. Signy H. – This Is How I See It Egill S – Egill S year) securing it in the modern yet mysterious and own sarcastic and tongue in check punk pricks You’ll only find this on-line (and you’ll have to Haukur Gröndal – Narodna Muzika 2. Sykur – Frábært eða frábært dark spectrum. band that doesn’t sound million miles away do some searching), but this material thrashes Stereo Hypnosis – Hypnogogia 3. Skátar – Goth báðum megin Myra's album never saw the light of day. from early to mid period Against Me! or the everything else that was released this year. Tyft – Smell The Difference 4. kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People As good as it’ll be I suspect the members of 2. Dr. Gunni – Inniheldur 5. Hjálmar - IV Ergs. “Taka í rass, taka í rass, allir voru að taka einhvern the band just imagined their trip to the studio. And the chameleon in this year’s bunch í rass!” Örn Ingi Ágústsson Three greats, Beneath (who played Wacken, must be the new and eclectic full length from 3. Buxnaskjónar – Þriðja heimsstyrjöldin mind you), Gone Postal and Severed Crotch are Morðingjarnir, Flóttinn mikli. I’m still digest- Iceland’s most promising punk band. And they (Skakkamanage, Seabear, etc) Tanya Pollock all working on new material. Same can be said ing this collection of songs, which is all over can’t buy liquor for another four years. (Weirdcore, Anoymous) about the never-will-die Changer. Good stuff the place. Finally the band is getting the respect 4. Bloodgroup – Dry Land 1) Kimono – Easy music for difficult people expected from each one. Atrum's Opus Victum they deserve and crossing over to the main- This one took a while to grow on me, but it’s great. 2) Nolo – No Lo Fi Björk – Voltaic EP is still being worked on even though record- stream, if such a thing is imaginable on this Less party action than before, but better sounding, 3) Prins póló – Einn heima EP Hermigervill – Leikur vinsæl íslenzk lög ings started long time ago. The demos sound island. Even though I’ve yet to make a verdict 4) Sudden Weather Change – Stop! Handgrenade better singing and more grown up. Kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People rad. on this record, it deserves the talk it’s getting. 5. Kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People In The Name Of Cribdeath ´Nderstand? Ruxpin – Where Do We Float From Here This years Cinderella story is Sólstafir. A Everybody seems to know about it. Which is an Nerd-rock for middle-aged mini-celebs. This is 5) Skátar – Goth báðum megin Weirdcore – Weirdcore2 Compilation band that's been like a Jumbo Jet in turbulence amazing feat in and of itself. kimono’s most solid offering. Their best? Possibly. year after year has finally arrived. If you thought A few bands were left out of this article, as Masterpiece Of Bitterness got good reviews, I tried to focus mainly on bands that released Benedikt Reynisson (Skátar) they pale in comparison to the praise Köld is get- something and were prolific in their own way. ting. Not only that. Sólstafir is reaching heights Rest assured, there were other acts that shined. 1. Kimono – Easy Music For Difficult People no Icelandic metal band has done on interna- Feel free to peep my blog, www.halifaxcol- 2. Bloodgroup – Dry Land tional level. lect.blogspot.com, for a bunch of the ‘09 bands 3. Sudden Weather Change – Stop! Handgrenade The 2009 edition of annual boozefest Eist- that were busy in the on-line listening party In The Name Of Cribdeath ´Nderstand? naflug (Flight of the Testicles) on the East Coast department. Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson is one of 4. Koi – Sum of All Things of Iceland boasted the biggest crowd yet; an Grapevine’s fine music critics. He also pounds. 5. Steve Sampling – Milljón mismunandi mann EXPECT HANG OVERS...

THE BIGGEST CLUB IN DOWNTOWN REYKJAVIK. LIVE MUSIC EVERY WEEKEND. WWW.NASA.IS The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 26 2009: Music GRAPEVINE STAFF PICK THEIR TOP GRAPEVINE STAFF PICK THEIR TOP GRAPEVINE ICELANDIC ALBUMS OF 2009 INTERNATIONAL ALBUMS OF 2009 STAFF PICK

gressive, honest hardcore punk made me a fan of THEIR TOP OTHER Bob Cluness Florian Zühlke Bob Cluness these heavily tattooed Brits. 3) Ruiner – Hell Is Empty STUFF OF 2009 1) Ben Frost - By The Throat: This man has 1) The Horrors - Primary Colours: I was one of 1) Sudden Weather Change - Stop! Handgre- Hell is Empty is so emotional, so honest that it probably created the first true soundtrack of the probably only 45 people who heard their 1st album nade in the Name of Crib Death 'nderstand? gives me shivers down my spine with every listen. Bob Cluness Kreppa and possibly one of the most vital releases (note: It was truly shit). This made it all the more I remember how impressed I was by their disso- This is how hardcore should sound, but doesn’t to come from Iceland in the past couple of years. remarkable that their follow up was so spectacu- nant but huge post-core sound – first at Airwaves any more since Modern Life Is War split up. BEST GIG MOMENTS OF 2009 And brave, honourable Iceland responded by lar. Singlehandedly sparking the Krautrock revival 2008 then on their record in the spring of 2009. 4) Behemoth – Evangelion Klink, Celestine and Retrön @ Dillon, Oct ´09: trying to deport him! No wonder the poor bastard and possibly the best guitar sounds since My 2) Muck – Vultures Maybe the best Death / Black Metal band around One of the few times recently that I’ve been truly looks so pissed off all the time. Bloody Valentine. A very good, dark and heavy hardcore/punk/ – and fortunately a non-fascist one. terrified for my life. It was a truly mental moment 2) kimono - Easy Music For Difficult People: 2) Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport: the sound of metal record by a very young band that hopefully 5) Rise and Fall – Our Circle is Vicious of crushing live metal. When I reviewed this, I don´t think I gave it justice a million angels off their face on E, in an Ibiza has its best to come. Into Oblivion was evil, downtuned and good; Our Mínus and HAM, Friday night @ Eistnaflug, as to how immediate this album is when you first nightclub. On Mars.... 3 ) Bob Justman – Happiness and Woe Circle is Vicious, adds more experimentation, July ´09: Was a great night for music but I don´t listen to it. It´s truly a brilliant indie rock album. 3) Sunn o))) - Monoliths & Dimensions: the I am still greatly enjoying the melancholic and more variety and better songwriting to Rise and remember much about that. This was because I 3) Bloodgroup - Dry Land: They took their base history of man from Neanderthal to space flight in touching, but never desperate, songs of Bob Fall's metallic hardcore – and thus makes it one of performed my only Good Samaritan act of the year electro sound and added several new levels of pop four loud, apocalyptic stages. Justman. Elliot Smith's successor seems to be my top five records 2009. and acted as a human shield to two metal heads brilliance. 4) Manatees - Icarus, the Sunclimber: Pos- Icelandic. in wheelchairs so they could watch at the front of 4) Sólstafir - Köld: Primordial, seething with epic sibly one of the biggest HOPEKRUSHER albums 4) Múm – Sing Along To Songs You Don’t the crowd. They had a great time, while I got 500 aggression, and just sounded brilliant. This beat I’ve heard in ages. Sounded so oppressive, it made Know moshers going all Drum and Bass on my kidneys the crap out of all the other metal releases and my ears cry. Haukur S Magnússon There is nothing to complain about here: really and spine. For two hours. Refreshing! took all their money for a laugh. 5) Zola Jesus: The Spoils: The best of the hyp- nice Icelandic pop music. 1.Japandroids - Post-Nothing 5) Sudden Weather Change - Stop! Handgre- nagogic lo-fi pop to come from the US this year. 5) AMFJ – Itemhljóð & Veinan 2. Converge - Axe To Fall WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2010... nade in the name of crib death ´nderstand?: Nika Danilova´s vocals sounded so haunted, like a A dark, disturbing drone experiment – roaring and 3. Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall In the rock/metal universe, you´re probably going Beating kimono to the worst album title of the ghostly apparition on fuzzy tape. intriguing –rather than a classical record. On top 4. jj - jj no 2 to hear a lot from power trio Ghost Aircraft. They year, they were full of infectious energy and punky there are cool electronic remixes. 5. A Sunny Day In Glasgow – A Sunny Day In just released their debut album over Christmas enthusiasm. It just made me feel old listening to it! Glasgow and will probably be the standard bearers for Ragnar Egilsson 6. A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head that post hardcore sound in 2010. And the debut Ragnar Egilsson Haukur S Magnússon 7. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue album by Severed Crotch should be lacerating our 1. HEALTH – Get Color 8. Jay Z - III eardrums as well. “I didn't hear enough good Icelandic records in 2. Girls - Album In the Electro world, 2010 sees the debut 1. Summer As A Salvation Soldier – Nýtt EP 9. Fever Ray – Fever Ray 2009 for a top 5. I can muster a top 3.” 3. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns from Captain Fufanu, while Pedro Pilatus (the solo 2. Ben Frost – By The Throat My 3. Sudden 10. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 4. Washed Out – Life Of Leisure project of Retro Stefsson´s Logi Pedró) should be Weather Change – Stop! Handgrenade In The 11. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm 1. Hildur Guðnadóttir – Without Sinking 5. Fever Ray – Fever Ray getting a lot more attention. Name Of Oppression & Alcohol 12. Atlas Sound - Logos 2. Ben Frost – By The Throat 7. Nosaj Thing – Drift Finally look out for the debut release from 4. Hildur Guðna – Without Sinking 3. Kimono Easy Music For Difficult People 7. Hudson Mohawke – Butter Daníel Bjarnason in February 2010 from those 5. Go-Go Darkness – Go-Go Darkness folks at the Bedroom community. It will finally 6. múm – Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know Jóhannes Kjartansson make you like neo-classical music. Honest, I 7. Deathmetal Supersquad – Dead Zeppelin Sindri Eldon swear! 8. Mugison – Ítrekun Sindri Eldon Tiga - Ciao #1: Plastic Gods - Quadriplegiac 9. Kimono – EM4DP Data - Skywriter Horrifying and tasteless, just what Iceland 10. Snorri Helgason – I’m Gonna Put My Name On #1: Kent - Röd Vitalic - Flashmob Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir deserves. Your Door Their best album ever? It's quite possible. Boys Noize - Power #2: Foreign Monkeys - π #2: Silversun Pickups - Swoon Moderat - Moderat Top 5 Artists To Watch In 2010 It rocked. Where the nineties never end, but in a good way. Joakim - Milky Ways 1. Ojba Rasta #3: TONIK – Form Follows Jóhannes Kjartansson #3: Animal Collective- Merriweather Post The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules 2. Sykur Solid as a cock. Pavillion Zombie Nation - Zombielicious 3. Ólafur Arnalds #4: Weapons - A Ditch In Time Yeah, good choice Sindri, real fucking original. 4. Skelkur í bringu múm - Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know Jori Hulkkonen - Man From Earth How could you not like this album? #4: Sparks - The Seduction Of Ingmar Berg- 5. Stereo Hypnosis Hjaltalín - Terminal The Bloody Beetroots - Romborama #5: Retrön - Swordplay & Guitarslay man Sykur - Frábært eða Frábært Fukkk Offf - Love Me Hate Me Kiss Me Kill Me You need to turn it all the way up first, and then it The weirdness continues. Tonik - Form Follows Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Depen- Ragnar Egilsson will blow your mind. #5: Electric Six - Kill dj. flugvél og geimskip - Rokk & róleg lög dence “Make your own new next big thing in 2010 mix #6: Úlpa - Jahilíya The awesomeness continues. and match genre terms! Get your fix of the hottest I'm high right now just thinking about it. prefixes and suffixes! Watch them take temporary #7: Egill S - Egill S root in 2010!” An album that can be both disappointing and Florian Zühlke excellent at the same time deserves mention. 1/2: 2/2: Congratulations! You #8: Hjaltalín - Terminal "lo-" "-hall" have now grown your 1) Thrice – Beggars Not as good as it should be, but not as bad as it "prog-" "-wop" very own musical Thrice evolved into a very good alternative rock could be. "grind-" "-tronica" chimera! Now unleash band long ago, even managing to record a set of #9:STEED LORD – Truth Serum "cosmic-" "-fi" the beast on the concept EPs (The Alchemy Index) without becom- "I'm a dirty dirty dirty dirty dirty millionaire" - "doom-" "-grass" world, watch it tear the ing awkward. Beggars is their latest and catchiest blogworld apart for up enough said. "fusion-" "-folk" album, it brings more exciting details with every to three weeks before #10: Agent Fresco - Lightbulb Universe "chamber-" "-wave" listen – Epic! it's abominable heart is It's very well organised. "boy-" "-core" 2) Gallows – Grey Britain pierced with snark and "meringue-" "-boxing" Somehow I overlooked this amazing young band’s it gives up the ghost "yoik-" "-chester" début two years ago, but Grey Britain's raw, ag- on a ten minute special on BBC2.

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GRÍMSEY

BOLUNGARVÍK DRANGAJÖKULL ÞÓRSHÖFN ÍSAFJÖRÐUR SIGLUFJÖRÐUR HÚSAVÍK HRÍSEY VOPNAFJÖRÐUR Krafla

BLÖNDUÓS AKUREYRI

FLATEY EGILSSTAÐIR NESKAUPSTAÐUR

Hallormstaður

Always best price online. STYKKISHÓLMUR Kárahnjúkar SNÆFELLSJÖKULL

ILULISSAT Greenland

CONSTABLE POINT BORGARNES Various online-offers to all Air Iceland's destinations. Greenland KULUSUK Greenland Gullfoss AKRANES Geysir NUUK Greenland REYKJAVÍK NARSARSSUAQ SIA.IS FLU 47569 10/2009 Greenland KEFLAVÍK Jökullónið

Blue Lagoon FAROE ISLANDS ÍSLENSKA

www.airiceland.is VESTMANNAEYJAR [email protected] / tel. +354 570 3030 ContactContact AirAir IcelandIceland oror travel agentagent for for reservation. reservation The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 See www.airiceland.is for schedules and more action-packed day trips. 27

Travel | Mývatn

Northern Exposure From Reykjavík to Lake Mývatn and back in 12 hours or less.

Boarding a plane at the Reykjavík air- was complete: the photographer and I, meal wound down, Rabbi pointed out The single employee at the reception “A flight between port has all the pomp and ceremony of an Italian couple, a German couple, an the window at a lone figure stretching table smiled as we pulled in: we were catching a city bus: no gates, no magic American mother and daughter and a his legs on a rocky crag. We quickly his only customers. For an hour and Reykjavík and wands, no taking my belt or shoes off. lone Japanese tourist. paid our bill and made our way down a half the ten of us steamed, swam, After a few minutes of waiting in the After enjoying the sight of Akurey- the hill where, to our surprise, we bathed, showered, relaxed and chatted Akureyri is like losing lobby with other red-eyed passengers, ri by night, Rabbi sped the van along found Stekkjastaur, one of the Yule in perfect serenity as if we’d rented the an attendant simply points outside to our first serious destination: Goða- Lads, tinkering around. During each complex for a private party. your virginity: a and we all trudge out towards the prop foss. By the time we arrived the sun of the twelve days before Christmas I asked Rabbi why, given the natu- plane waiting at the door. Within min- was just rising and the view was im- a different Yule Lad keeps vigil here, ral beauty and attractions of the area, slightly terrifying and utes we’re seated in a plane cramped pressive: 12 metres of cascading water waiting for neighbourhood children we’d seen so few other visitors. with over-sized luggage, businessmen cradled between snowy banks with a to come by and chat. But during our “Tourists don’t realise that there surprisingly short and their newspapers, children and silver moon to top it all off. visit there were no children in sight are more things to do here in the win- experience. ” their cries. “So many people going to From Goðafoss Rabbi headed to- and as far as I could tell there was no ter, not less,” he said. “It’s beautiful Mývatn,” I thought to myself. Oh, how wards Lake Mývatn on practically de- neighbourhood either. This didn't here in the winter. It’d be great to see wrong I was. serted roads. Named for the billions seem to bother Stekkjastaur, who bus- more visitors come.” A flight between Reykjavík and of flies that hatch here every summer, ied himself with pulling women from Driving back to the Akureyri air- Akureyri is like losing your virginity: the lake attracts dozens of different our group on to his lap and posing for port I had to agree with Rabbi, it was a slightly terrifying and surprisingly bird species that come here to feast pictures. beautiful here. But I couldn’t help short experience. Bouncing and dip- yearly. Those birds, in turn, attract Next stop: Hverarönd, a highly wondering if more visitors might shat- ping, the blue and gold plane hardly thousands of tourists. But during our active geological area with bubbling ter that special experience of bundling had time to reach cruising altitude be- visit the region was entirely devoid of sulphur mounds as far as the eye can up with a group of perfect strangers fore starting its descent. pesky flies, annoying tourists, or gorg- see. Here too we were alone, strolling and trucking around a barren land- Rabbi, Air Iceland’s Lake Mývatn ing birds. through the steam with red mud cak- scape without another soul for hun- day tour guide, met us on arrival, in- A well-deserved lunch followed at ing thickly on our shoes. dreds of kilometres around. troduced himself warmly, and guided a nearby restaurant overlooking a vast At this point Rabbi was hurrying us us toward the minivan which would be volcanic landscape. Here too it seemed along. There were only a couple hours our trusted chariot for the rest of the as if our 10-person party made up the left and we’d yet to see the star attrac- Michael Zelenko day. A couple stops later our fellowship majority that day’s patrons. As the tion: the Lake Mývatn Nature Baths. Björk Thorgrímsdóttir

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GRÍMSEY

BOLUNGARVÍK DRANGAJÖKULL ÞÓRSHÖFN ÍSAFJÖRÐUR SIGLUFJÖRÐUR HÚSAVÍK HRÍSEY VOPNAFJÖRÐUR Krafla

BLÖNDUÓS AKUREYRI

FLATEY EGILSSTAÐIR NESKAUPSTAÐUR

Hallormstaður

Always best price online. STYKKISHÓLMUR Kárahnjúkar SNÆFELLSJÖKULL

ILULISSAT Greenland

CONSTABLE POINT BORGARNES Various online-offers to all Air Iceland's destinations. Greenland KULUSUK Greenland Gullfoss AKRANES Geysir NUUK Greenland REYKJAVÍK NARSARSSUAQ SIA.IS FLU 47569 10/2009 Greenland KEFLAVÍK Jökullónið

Blue Lagoon FAROE ISLANDS ÍSLENSKA

www.airiceland.is VESTMANNAEYJAR [email protected] / tel. +354 570 3030 ContactContact AirAir IcelandIceland oror travel agentagent for for reservation. reservation The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 Learn more about the artists at www.this.is/comet 28 2009: Art and www.this.is/birta

Art | Interview I greatly enjoyed the fact that done with the press treating it like Ásmundur Ásmundsson displayed it does every other case, where his hole at Hafnarhús during the one point of view is presented middle of the revolution. The piece and then the opposite one. There was a very in your face manifestation is something vital missing in of the turmoil we were experiencing, Icelanders’ basic art education that it was a turd on the base of the made it hard for some to understand bubble years. He dug a deep hole in what Ragnar was trying to do, and Klambratún, filled it with concrete there was a lack of interest among and displayed the negative, the hole the media in presenting every side of the bubble – a hole in the soul of to the story. the nation. The timing was great, too. HJ: It’s a good thing Ragnar’s model was wearing a Speedo – I’d BG: A pretty geeky thing that hate to imagine the local talk if stood out and felt important to me he’d been posing naked for six regarding the arts was that our new months. It seems Icelanders have Minister of Education changed the some strange conceptions of art – to name of the ministry to ‘Ministry many of them; it’s confined to being of Education and Culture’. I felt that a painting in a frame. I’ve never was important and symbolic for a painted anything, and then I’ve had nation that is in part characterised folks coming to my shows asking by its culture and national heritage. where the paintings are. Ragnar’s There were lots of things statement will fortunately cause a that stood out. I also liked the lot of controversy, while something attitude presented in festivals like like Yoko Ono’s Peace Tower gets Sequences, where all emphasis was everyone ecstatic. To me, this put on keeping up spirits and energy brings some really troubling and with ambition and diligence – an interesting ramifications. urgency to create a bridge between the local and international scene in Could you name some highs A Year Of Waiting, Undercurrent, the field of time based arts. and lows for 2009 regarding the artworld? HJ: Indeed. Sequences managed Countdown, Festivals And No Revolution to bring over international talent HJ: To me, it actually starts when despite the situation over here the cables from Channel 2 were The 2009 artworld discussed, somewhat and the whole program seemed cut by flames during the Kryddsíld very energetic, even though I only broadcast on December 31st 2008, witnessed a small part of it. There that was a crucial and historical The Grapevine somehow managed to convince two of its favourite people from the local artworld was less money, yet more drive rupture between media reality and – prominent artist Haraldur Jónsson and fellow prominent artist-slash-Living Art Museum director somehow. Almost an Airwaves-feel the actual situation in the country. Birta Guðjónsdóttir – to engage in discussion about Icelandic arts in the year 2009. The following is to it. Those first stirs of the saucepan revolution, where the melting a very abridged account of their discussion. BG: Then there are some things pot started boiling together a big that come to mind because of my Gesamtkunstwerk. This was a -2009 was a year of great The artist of 2009 BG: I suppose so, for the risk various practices in the field. Such huge artistic experience all over transformation for Icelandic society BG: Another thing I feel relevant of sounding totally banal. Such as the fact that there was a whole downtown Reykjavík, with flames and has been called the year of in this context is when Goddur, happenings – the paint spatter, lot of debate coupled with very little burning bright in every corner. waiting and the year of great Guðmundur Oddur, provided the voting booth defecator – they actual knowledge on the writing and There were some illuminating disappointment, where people built a quick analysis of the visual may be interpreted in an artistic publishing of a five volume tome sparks during the year, but still the hopes of certain societal changes symbolism that many protestors context, and they do evoke some on the history of Icelandic art in the atmosphere was rather static. 2009 that were impending, and that have used, the symbolism of the very interesting thoughts if you 20th century. The discourse has all was the year of the countdown. yet to appear at the time of writing. anarchists that marched under approach them in that manner. They happened in small cells while very In the field of visual arts, a lot of black flags and covered their faces. are moving and defy convention little information is trickling out BG: I feel it was a year of fermentation took place, manifestos Many novel concepts and ideas and definition; they aren’t strictly from the institution that is behind undercurrent, of undertow, a the book, The National Gallery of were released, exhibitions were were introduced to the nation in a political acts, nor are they strictly year of preparation for the arts, Iceland, and its writers and editors. were drafts were being made and thrown and all the festivals went relatively short time. works of art – they are both and on even though support from both they are neither. Maybe these are foundations were being laid... I HJ: They initially presented the have no idea what; maybe they’re private and public sectors was cut HJ: Discourse around the arts and the most interesting ways in which art and daily life collided in 2009? project saying that there was to no masterpieces. There was an back considerably. For the field their connection with our so-called The acts are certainly provoking, be a symposium regarding how undercurrent though. It wasn’t a we are here to discuss, one could reality got a big push with entities and they force ones inner rebel into to approach our art of the 20th very eventful year in the artworld... say it needed to consider a new such as [on-line magazine] Nei. and dialogue with ones sense of morality century, where each volume’s editor To me there isn’t one particular reality, demands of renewal and others, a certain interactivity was and anger, and curiosity. would answer questions and engage exhibition/event that sticks out. reconsideration. Is this assumption introduced. The entire revolution, A part of what is interesting to in a dialogue with the artistic correct? its aftermath and the events leading me about the new level of activism community. That did not happen HJ: No, that’s true. A stone cold up to it could be viewed as grand in Iceland is the discussion it evokes – it seems the work happened in a estimate doesn’t bring up any Birta Guðjónsdóttir: Yes, very installation and happening. These about the crossing of the private/ tomb, that it is shrouded in secrecy revolutions in the artworld. much so, since an idea still exists were some key factors one was very public threshold. It is interesting and silence. It’s funny to think that that the arts should somehow aware of throughout the year, as well that at the same time the personal writing of Icelandic art history in -One final question. Say you “precede the present” – that it is as dragging around remnants of the space of the bankers was violated the 20th century is being performed encounter a time traveller five years obligated to save the world via boom years – the under-construction against with paparazzi photos in in a similar way to the investigation ago that tells you of his plans to visit preventive measures, anticipating Music Hall is an example. gossip magazines such as Séð og in the bank collapse. 2009. He wants to check out some events and responding to them Speaking of Goddur’s analysis Heyrt, they can now not be touched. In my opinion, this must be some nice shows. Where do you tell him before they happen. and his lecture at Hafnarhús, I felt sort of anachronism. to go? I experience 2009 as an that it was perhaps jumping the gun. Bettering Reykjavík introspection year for the arts – and It is odd to analyse an event as it is -How about the field of art itself. A lack of education BG: Uhm... not just in Iceland – with questions happening. What significant things went on in if artists could have announced 2009? -For the general public, arts HJ: Well... doomsday sooner... BG: Indeed, it is odd, but in a way it discourse maybe became most was also a case of striking the iron BG: I feel it was a year of art conspicuous in two cases in 2009; -Alright, let’s say a foreign friend Haraldur Jónsson: I think this while it’s hot. I think it was very festivals, so to speak. It displayed the discussion led by Ásmundur had written you a letter last year. has been a year of intermission positive. One can assume that, say, thoroughly that people prefer a Ásmundsson and others about artists He’s coming to visit, and he has time or of waiting, a year where the artists or anthropologist that have diverse range of culture, and the and the arts being in need of critical to see one exhibition. He’s really Icelandic nation suffered a nervous studied history know these symbols, times of one or two festivals being introspection in light of the bubble depending on your advice... breakdown and experienced the but the public does not and one able to serve everyone are behind years and subsequent collapse, numbness that follows. As if that sensed in conversation that people us. I remember a time when one and then the outrage over Ragnar BG: Well, I might take him to the weren’t enough, The Living Art were thankful for the insight, while could have attended every concert, Kjartansson’s trip to the Venice monster exhibition in Bíldudalur... Museum was closed for studies and local history was being created. theatrical performance and art Biennale, which garnered objections re-organisation for most of the year, As for the saucepan revolution exhibition in Reykjavík – this is now for being a ritzy and expensive act HJ: I would take him for a swim in in harsh times, sponsoring an artist and so was Kling & Bang. and its symbolism; the acts of impossible and I think that this the ocean, and then to Austurvöllur, to “drink beer and smoke cigarettes But what happened? The destruction and vandalism had an contributes to a better quality of life. to engage in some refreshing for six months.” A lot was written on saucepan revolution, that was maybe interesting way of escalating, from One festival I was really Icelandic protesting. impressed with was the ArtFart both subjects... artistically speaking the biggest being playful-slash-serious at first, festival; many of the participants are visual art installation, a regular ultimately reaching a plateau that BG: There were no major newly graduates from art school and BG: Well, these are valid questions breakthroughs in the arts this year. Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk that produced what I think are some of some of them are still studying. It is and topics of discussion, just like Although some artists undoubtedly provided images that are branded the best artworks of 2009; the paint a very cross-disciplinary festival that anything else our tax money goes made personal breakthroughs. This into our consciousness by now, like that was spattered over banksters’ displays the works of people that towards, but also because it is the year was more like lava bubbling the Oslo tree being brought down houses. It was like a test, crossing have in many instances explored first time in a while that the public under the volcano. and burned. In symbolic terms, it the threshold of destruction, a different regions than the market- in Iceland pays attention to such primal scream. was like our very own 9/11, a very arts inhabit. It was an exciting events as the Biennale and our iconic course of events that had festival. contribution. many visual aspects. -Is Skapofsi, the activist group When Ragnar’s work was being that declared responsibility, then Haukur S Magnússon HJ: As for stand-alone exhibitions, criticized in media, we could have collectively the artist of the year? JULIA STAPLES HVÍTA HÚSIÐ / SÍA – 09–0223 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 01 — 2010 Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl’s third novel, Gæska (Kindness), has just been published by Mál & menning. 30

Party | Sigurður Kjartan Kristinsson Opinion | Art Whooping It Up In 2009 The Meaning Of Chaos Grapevine Recaps All Yesterday’s Parties So much for post-modernism. What next? For Icelanders, 2009 was in many ways Norðfjörður festival combo of Eistnaflug As I said last issue: To un- one directing anything, but that doesn’t a god-awful year. Still, there seems to be and LungA. I’d rather not put the glory derstand anything, you must mean no one is responsible. Quite the a hidden link between grim nightlife, of the uncrowned wingding king and understand everything. opposite. Everything impacts everything gruesome partying and a bad national queen of the East fjords into words but In early 2009, I went to an ex- else, so the people who make the big- temperament-rate. So it’s easy to assert their reign consists amongst others of hibition at the Norwegian National Gal- gest decisions affect the whole game, that Grapevine’s favorite pastime – impelled sea-swimming, underage sex- lery. The exhibit was devoted to Munch’s whether they intend to or not. getting shitfaced – had a strong year. A lot orgies and a great consumption of alleged painting Det Syke Barn (The Sick Child). For Icelanders today, such a theory of new venues, bars and clubs opened up, narcotics. Not only did they show various versions makes sense. Many refer to a “kerfis- and a lot of them went belly up, and in this As autumn fell, it was as toxic fumes of the picture, but they also exhibited villa,” a systemic failure, in Iceland’s endless turbulence of opening parties started swirling over the city, inebriating other works from the 1880s in general, economy. Wherever we localise the and bankruptcy wakes we stumbled every inhabitant and in the haze we other paintings by Munch that dealt with initial cause as Milton Friedman’s lecture upon some true gems. Alcohol-serving, diligently survived the stupor of RIFF, the artist’s fascination with sickness and in 1984, Davíð Oddsson coming to pow- debauchery-friendly gems. Sequences and Iceland Airwaves. What death, and other works that portrayed er in 1991, the privatisation of the banks It’s a strenuous task to sum up every begun as fancy champagne-sipping the dying. A whole room was devoted after 1999, it is obvious that the results shindig triumphs of the year, so we’ll fêtes slowly morphed into uncountable to the history of medicine during the have been far reaching. They altered not have to make do with mentioning only smoky afterparties. Don’t get me wrong period. The point was clear: the only just the course of the economy, but even the crème de la crème extravaganzas. though, this glorious season of muddle is way to truly understand a work of art how almost the entire nation thought Christmas for us nightlife strongholds – is to understand everything around it, and acted. It should be equally obvious CONSTANT PARTY-THROWERS but once the fumes clear, the hangovers the whole world view of the times at the that none of this was inevitable, that First, let’s look at the constant parties last until the actual Christmas. time of its creation. things could have gone in a myriad of as ‘the January-Detox’ and other such through the year. Grapevine’s winner of Finally, we have the big wrap-up: Once you start looking for some- different directions. As, indeed, they can nonsense tends to impede things. But the best bar of 2009, Karamba, started off New Year’s Eve. It’s always sort of a thing, you find evidence of it every- today. as the sun started honoring us with its with a blast, where experienced hooligans disappointment; however realistic you where. A review of The Oxford History presence for more than three hours per hoofed it alongside their youngster are about the night being overestimated of Western Music in The Economist Freedom, from the communes to the day, people started itching for a good, protégés 'til their heels were sore, but as there’s always the longing for an epic reads: “We are presented not with a banks carefree bender. Although yours truly summer drew to a close, the DJs started New Year’s tale lurking at the bottom miraculous chain of great composers The implications of this are far reaching, wasn’t present at the Easter giant in the becoming looser and when a certain of your heart. The bars were battling producing timeless masterpieces from especially in a small society. How we act depravity league, its attendants have kid’s birthday-tunes became one of for the crowds this year, as every venue nowhere. Rather, musical works and every day has potentially far-reaching bugged me with idiotic stories of the their hottest crowd-pleasers, the seniors advertised more than ever the crazy bash stylistic movements are presented in consequences. Someone who runs great Aldrei Fór Ég Suður festival of 2009: seemed to disappear completely, leaving that was going to take place within their context so that, for example, the origins a company sets the game rules for a How they got stuck in a locked cab with the floor to jumping high-school chums. perimeters. I avoided being stuck in a of the dynamic style of Mozart and large number of people, who in turn a Robert de Niro-like boozed up maniac Fortunately, Bakkus came to the bar, so I witnessed a lot of home-cooked Haydn are shown to lie in Italian opera influence friends and relatives. People behind the wheel, how they ended up rescue, bringing their notorious craziness, but in the end my companions buffa rather than in the architecturally were constantly asked to overstep their pants-less in some random house or how afterparties to the table. Once the clock couldn’t resist peeking into Bakkus’ static idiom of Bach and Handel.” moral boundaries, until these eventually they received their best-ever blowjob in turned 1AM (or 5AM) the good people at first foray into the world of New Year’s Acknowledging a master’s influenc- faded away. In this way, the free market the trunk of an SUV. So yeah, things took Bakkus would lock their doors, pull the mania. And it was undeniably a great es is not exactly a groundbreaking idea. ideology reached everywhere in the a turn over Easter. drapes and distribute ashtrays, New York- way to end the party mayhem of 2009 in The notion that the artist is impacted space of two decades and eventually led style. Even loudening the music. So, you a champagne pit full of whacks breaking by everything, including politics, social to collapse. FESTIVAL MAYHEM can imagine how boozy things got. their New Year’s vows in a ritual-like issues, even the medical science of his The core ideal of libertarianism was After the post-Easter hiatus, the 24-hour Festival-wise, things started off rather frenzy, lighting flares and popping pills. day is, in the current climate, almost the idea of personal freedom, something sunlight lead to the crazy Seyðisfjörður/ slow in 2009 as ludicrous concepts such Good Riddance. revolutionary. they borrowed from the hippies while What I am getting at owes more than shedding all the tiresome peace and a little to chaos theory. Let’s recap. love business. The idea of freedom was Poetry | Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl The most popular illustration of eventually taken to mean that nobody Chaos Theory is what is known as The had to take any responsibility for their Butterfly Effect. A butterfly flapping its actions. You could, say, advertise The Death Of A Poem wings in Brazil will put in action a tiny unhealthy food to children, but the chil- Poetry is a culture heavily literary cliques I can confirm that this is not entitled “The Death of the Author”. In the current that eventually becomes a tor- dren, or their parents, were responsible impregnated with the limited to the society of dead (famous) poets. essay Barthes railed against the idea that we nado in Texas. Locally, we might say that if they bought it. You could advertise idolisation of poets. Popular Literary enthusiasts gossip about living poets read the text in the context of its author. The a pebble falling thrown off a mountain bogus accounts, but responsibility for knowledge of poetry stops and writers, big and small, like there’s no text should be free from whoever the author could spur an avalanche. putting money into it lay with the con- where the anecdotes about poets end and tomorrow. And culture-reportage in Iceland is, says Barthes, and in fact there is no actual This might be hard to live with, but sumer. Eventually, this meant you could the poetry begins. We remember Rimbaud usually consists of asking a writer or artist “author”, only a “scriptor” who produces the this is actually how we live our lives. lie, but if someone believed you, the fault as the original rockstar, vomiting all over what his or her “dream-weekend” might be, work but does not explain it, does not have There are moments, such as starting a was entirely theirs. Chaos theory takes the Paris culture elite. We remember what they have in their pockets, or chit-chat the (sole) right to unentangle his or her new job, graduating or getting married, the opposite view. Since everything Ginsberg as the mad fairy who blew people about politics and social matters that may or symbolic efforts—or indeed any other part of where we realise that nothing will be is influenced by everything else, the in parties and undressed on stage. Li Po as may not have anything to do with the artist’s the work. the alcoholic who drowned while trying to subject matter. What you soon realise when This may be a creative way to the same from now on. But every day is responsibility must lie with the liar. embrace the reflection of the moon in the you first get interviewed for a book you’ve approach a poem, although perhaps a bit filled with little decisions that determine So, we move from nothing matters, river. Sylvia Plath for being suicidal. Ted written is that the reporter in question fundamentalist for most people’s taste. A the course of the rest of our lives. The to everything matters. Post-modernism Hughes for being her husband. Gertrude will, in 9 cases out of 10, not have read your poet’s life may be relevant to his or her work, most obvious example is going out on has run its course. It took a hit on 9/11, Stein for her dinner parties. We remember book. Even the critique, the reviews in the either the methods of composition or his or a Friday night, where we may meet and eventually collapsed completely poets for being crazy, for being loners, bitter newspapers or other media, is inherently her maternal relationship—whatever it is. someone who will change everyday with the banks. We need new ideas for a or ecstatic, for their failures more than their focused on the writer’s person: he or she has Reading is a free world. And poets should thereafter. Icelandic bars might be seen new age. - Valur Gunnarsson victories, for their eccentricities more than grown, he or she has lost his or her touch, he maybe not be the ones deciding what readers as one big drunken example of chaos their attempts at finding common human or she is venturing where no he-or-she has see in their works or how they should be read. theory, much more so than for example traits. Not counting a few sound bites etched ventured before, he or she is old-fashioned, But I am confident that most of my fellow into the mental gravestones of our mutual he or she is revolutionary. He or she should’ve poets would be overjoyed if the media, when dating sites, where everything is at least consciousness (“I saw the best minds of my taken more time. The list of clichés is longer, discussing the life, methods and opinions intentional. generation” … and “I am large, I contain but as it induces involuntary vomiting in the of the poet, would be so kind as to do so in There is no master plan. When set multitudes” and the like) we hardly ever columnist, I will stop here. the context of the poet’s work, rather than in motion, things are often propelled touch on their poetry. The French literary-critic Roland Barthes the context of the contents of the poet’s by various unintended forces and have Having soon spent a decade in Icelandic wrote a famous essay in the late sixties pockets. unforeseen consequences. There is no

Your essential guide to life, travel and entertainment in Iceland STUFFED WITH STUFF ISSUE 01 YOUR FREE COPY

Page 28: It’s a good thing Ragnar’s model was wearing a Speedo – I’d hate to imagine the local talk if he’d been posing naked for six months. Haraldur Jónsson and Birta Guðjónsdóttir dis- cuss the year in Icelandic arts and swimwear.

Page 30: ...how they got stuck in a locked cab with a Robert de Niro-like boozed up maniac behind the wheel, how they ended up pants- less in some random house or how they received their best-ever blowjob in the trunk of an SUV. Yeah, Easter in Ísafjörður sounds alright.

Page 10: In a matter of weeks the paper turned into a vehicle for Oddsson and his cronies, the subscribers disappeared in droves and now little remains of the old prestige. This is not only a battle for politi- French cal power, but also for what will be written in the history books.Egill Helgason’s inaugural column for the Grapevine is a pretty darn good read...

Page 20: Film Festival Davíð Oddsson is the only person who comes with flying colours out of the Icelandic debacle. He is the only one who resisted the oligarchs that contributed so much to the downfall of Iceland. Well-known (or notorious) media personalities like Egill Helgason, for example, did not want to take sides in the 2004 struggle be- tween Davíð Oddsson and the oligarchs. ...so is Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson’s com- mentary on 2009.

Page 26: Horrifying and tasteless, just what Iceland deserves. And Sindri Eldon’s number one Icelandic record of 2009 is...

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