BEOWULF CUTS LOOSE
by Valur Gunnarsson Is Gerard Butler worth 900 million krónur? Visitors to Skógar have up until now usually come in small groups and go there for the stunning Skógarfoss waterfa
You Can’t Take it With You
Artist Ragna Róbertsdóttir remains remarkably calm even though this is not just some regular glass. She inspects the damage to the giant, now broken panel. So far, they have inst
AMINA FECUNDUS: SEVERING THE HEART STRINGS
When there finally came time for a bit more rumination concerning the name, it was decided that Anima was far too pretentious and the name was overhauled to Amina. In […]
Sunday beers with Úlpa
I caught up with Magnús and Aron of Úlpa at Bar 11 on a Sunday. Magnús, the singer, guitarist and keyboardist, was tending the bar. Aron, the bassist, was somewhat […]
HOT CHIP
Electronic funk outfit Hot Chip have recently achieved the accolade of having their song “Down with Prince” chosen as NME’s single of the week, being described as “genre-ho
TRABANT
The Mayor of Keflavík greeted them with open arms and an open apartment – setting up a special rate so that the band wouldn’t have to commute from Reykjavík. On […
GHOSTIGITAL
“You know how Bibbi got a lump on the back of his head?,” Einar Örn asks me, referring to the other half of his music project, Ghostigital, who’s not present […]
WHY DOES EVERYONE DRESS THE SAME IN ICELAND?
The homogenity of people’s outfits in Reykjavík might not be blamed on a lack of imagination, though. It has more to do with the fact that clothing stores, despite their [&helli
Icelandic cusine: Arriving any century now
They compete in two categories. The first is a cold buffet, which consists of appetisers as well as various main courses along with desserts and confectioneries. The decor, lightin
Erró’s Muse: They’ll Never Make a Movie of this
Take a deep breath. Okay, let me relay the plot: In Issue One of the Silver Surfer, originally published in 1968, we get the origin. An entity that consumes planets, […]
POLITICAL DANCING
Screensaver is a highly contemporary work from Israel’s finest choreographer Rami Be’er, the director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Philip Bergmann, from Arnsberg
Man and Goat: Just Good Friends?
And yet Martin seems to hold firm to his love of Sylvia the goat. He separates himself from the perverts who have sex with animals, because they all have problems; […]
WHO CARES ABOUT THE KIDS?
It used to be the case that seeing somebody famous, and I mean somebody really famous, somebody foreign and famous, was something people would talk about for the rest of […]
VOTE SURVIVAL
I voted for the independent anyway because generally speaking, I don’t think any vote is wasted in theory or in practice. There is of course the notion that voting your […
No democracy please; we´re Americans
Like My Lai, the Florida fiasco is no inexplicable exception but is part of and at the same time obscures the larger and more important reality, leaving many unable to […]
Hands up: who knows what Isthmus is?
My copy is well worn – it was published in 1988. I often scan through it with the hope of picking up some new words. I never thought this wee […]
Honesty is important
He was doing well and, as is usually the case with people who are doing well, he looked good. So good that the girl I was talking to came over […]
Exporting Volcanoes
So when I grew up I thought that volcanic eruptions where a commonplace event. I found the 1973 eruption in the Westman Islands wildly exciting, especially as I got to […]
All the World´s Problems and their Solutions
Problems, looked up on Google, bring 77.900.000 pages, whereas solutions show up slightly less, 65.000.000 pages. The difference, which may be interpreted as unsolved problems*, is
Accidental ReggaeHjálmar
“It was completely by accident that all the songs ended up being reggae songs. When we started recording, we knew that we didn’t want pop but we weren’t aiming for […]