Letters
Dear Friend, I, on behalf of my colleagues from different Federal Government of Nigeria owned parastatals, decided to solicit your assistance as regards transfer of US$41,500,000.0
CHURCHES
Hallgrímskirkja The mother of them all. Sort of spaceshippy and/or phallic in appearance. Took a lifetime to complete, as it was originally planned in 1914, construction started i
Belfast And The IRA
Once upon a time about 800 years ago in a green and distant isle, a young clansman called Diarmaid was having trouble with his neighbours so he decided to invite […]
HIGH TIME FOR GREENLAND
High time is the folk etymology translation of what seems to be Icelandic key word in summer – hátíð. Hátíð means a festival, festivities, holiday, and there appears to
A COFFEE SHOP WITH CLASS
Those who have travelled a lot will know what I am talking about when I moan about the fact that there isn’t a decent coffee shop with small snacks available […]
THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY FROZE THEIR ASSES OFF
A brief look at the bands that have been here THE FIRST The Kinks were here in ´65 and played at Hótel Borg, today’s oldest surviving hotel in downtown Reykjavík. […]
TURN ON, TUNE INDRESS UP!
It is said that some things that don’t make sense actually do make sense. Using a design store as a place to hold concerts does in a way not make […]
Keflavík, We Have A Problem
So the summer continued. I had a chance to return to home to spend some days with my boys Jake and Harry. Willed myself out of bed at 5.00am to […]
MAUS
From one of Reykjavik’s suburbs comes the band Maus, one of the more mature and developed bands in Iceland. They’ve been around for a while, released five albums and received [
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
SOME ICELANDERS WHO TRIED AND FAILED TO CONQUER THE WORLD The Sagas often take pains in pointing out how well received Icelanders were at the courts of kings and chieftains. [&hell
“HEYRÐU!” – “HA?”
Just the other day I listened to two Radio X presenters (einasta radióið sem rokkar, in case you have forgotten) as they spent considerable time pondering over the variety of [&h
Megas: Iceland’s Greatest Living Wordsmith
Grapevine does not know what to expect as the phone is picked up. Will Master answer in verse or prose, quoting pearls of oriental wisdom, the Sagas or the Bible, […]
THE SWEET STUFF
Iceland’s relationship with sweets has long been a strange one. For the most part it seems we tend to think of blatantly commercial, 100% American brands of sweets and cereals [&
Coffee
Like so many of my fellow countrymen I hold coffee dear, it is the source of my powers and without it I’m useless. For the last few years coffee has […]
HE WHO LAUGHS LAST:
THE OIL COMPANIES AND ICELANDIC BUSINESS For the past few days news of illegal price collaboration between the three main oil companies has dominated the Icelandic media, the lates
TEARS OF THE CLOWN
I was having dinner at Casa Grande when a portly Paraguayan came up and started serenading me with his guitar. Duly serenaded, he invited me for dinner. He said his […]
The Voice Of The Resistance
Anyone who read John Boyce’s article on the media (issue 2) should have realised that said media are not to be trusted. It seems that in the information society we […]