Editorials
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Publisher’s Note: The Top 10 Cutest Waterfalls In Iceland
Media research in the past decade has established that feedback online, first from clicks, then from social media interaction, has formed the agenda-setting of editorial boards across the globe. This has been going on for so long now that it now looks…
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Walk North Until You Find Your True Sun Voyager
There aren’t ten people on this island who would send a friend to look at Sun Voyager (Sólfar), the roadside art on the Sæbraut highway. I use the English title for it first, because, God bless Jón Gunnar Árnason, this isn’t for…
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The Demise Of Icelandic Media
The Reykjavík Grapevine was in the local news in late February due to our layoffs. This is a devastating and demoralising action to take, but done to ensure the continued existence of The Grapevine. It also demonstrates the general environment in which…
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Humbling Moment For Community Journalism
I received a phone call just before 9 AM from a local newspaperman, an experienced reporter doing his job. He’d heard that the Grapevine had laid off our staff writers, and he wanted my opinion on the shakeup. For those familiar with…
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Publisher’s Note: Bravely Stating The Obvious
In 1939, reviewing a book by Bertrand Russell, George Orwell wrote, “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” January saw international leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland. The most awaited…
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Editorial: Following A Game Without Understanding The Rules
And knowing when the game is over The locals here had another amazing athletic run this month, this time at the EHF European Men’s Handball Championships, making the semi-finals. Usually, I would not describe this nation as sports-crazed. There aren’t massive crowds…
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Editorial: We Didn’t Put Páll Óskar On The Cover Again
Celebrating our previous cover person We simply don’t have a person-of-the-year category. Our colleagues at RÚV English generously hosted the Grapevine and asked us about our editing process for Best of Reykjavik, the sister publication to the Reykjavík Grapevine. The interview was…
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Publisher’s Note: Living In The Ruins Of A Civilisation
In Bede’s 8th-century history of England, he describes how the Saxons live in Roman ruins, which they don’t have the skills to maintain or reproduce. By the 12th-century, some English scholars attribute the Roman ruins to a race of giants. Mere mortals…
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Publisher’s Note: We’re Looking For A Whale
In the past weeks, the discussion about the state of media in Iceland has flared up again following an announcement from local media company SÝN that they will no longer be providing television news on weekends due to financial issues, bringing to…
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Editorial: The Glory Of Christmas Without Amazon
Life in a country unscathed by Jeff Bezos feels more and more miraculous My favourite goggles went on sale this Cyber Monday. I announced to the office that it pained me not to buy them. They were half off. Nobody understood my…
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Editorial: We Celebrated The Passionate Amateur For A Long Time
We’re ready to move toward venerating the dedicated professional While Björk has been on the cover of The Grapevine eight times, it never happened while I was editing. I was somehow the only holdout. On the occasion of a significant birthday for…
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Publisher’s Note: Feudal Capitalism
Following a Supreme Court judgement last month, the Icelandic banks changed their mortgage offerings. Result: Normal people can not take a loan to buy a home in Iceland. In the past 15 years this has become exponentially more difficult. This is because…
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Publisher’s Note: Thralldom 2.0
In the past decade 45,000 people have moved to Iceland for work. A side effect of a tourism boom. We are now learning that some of them, often women, are victims of human trafficking. We act surprised. We shouldn’t be. In the…
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Editorial: In A Land Without Kings, Inspiration And Dignity
Celebrating the truly exceptional people who caused change, and acknowledging the grace of accepting it This is the age when indecent men declare themselves kings, and in far too many places a weary public accepts the decree. Mercifully, Iceland has no kings.…
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Editorial: Sunset And Darkness
Witnessing the fall of an empire After a frantic, peripatetic summer, my seven-year-old child was astonished to note, as we sat in the massive hot tub at Vesturbæjarlaug, a glorious sunset. In a search for order, I’ve kept strict bedtimes, so September…
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Editorial: A Model of Democracy, Aware Of The Threats
How an interview for an English-language paper is cause for celebration Iceland has just been voted, again, the most peaceful nation in the world. Unemployment is low. While the cost of living is difficult, there are plenty of reasons to come to…
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Editorial: On Talking To The Neighbours
Walking the streets of Reykjavík can be humbling. The street signs contain more syllables than seem possible — I pass Bræðraborgarstígur on my way into work, and it’s not the most complicated street name I pass on my 10-minute walk. This weekend,…
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Publisher’s Note: On The Duty Of A Neighbour
Three years ago this month I moved back to Iceland after seven years in Sweden. Moving to the Nordics and back is a very common Icelandic experience. For work. For studies. It’s familiar, just bigger, better weather, and everything works. The pace…
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Editorial: The Grapevine Orbit
Returning to a paper of substance For more than 20 years I’ve been working with the Grapevine. This is how this magazine works — you get trapped in an orbit, and you never quite leave. For me, I began writing here in…
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Editorial: 100+ Places Of Solitude
Icelandic weekly Heimildin used the phrase “tourism fatigue” in a recent article focusing on the small town of Vík, where fewer than 700 inhabitants receive more than 5,000 tourists each day during summer, overloading the town’s sewer system, buying up all the…
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Editorial: Þetta Reddast!
On Wednesday, Iceland woke up to yet another volcanic eruption. It’s notable, sure, but it’s become something we’ve gotten used to. Thankfully, this eruption doesn’t look set to destroy any of our infrastructure, namely the Svartsengi power plant. It provides energy for…
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Editorial: The Ring Road, Forging A Nation
July 14, 1974 saw the opening of the then-biggest and most expensive man-made structure in the history of Iceland until that time: a 904-metre-long bridge across Skeiðará, a glacial river just east of Skaftafell in southeast Iceland. A river that had,…
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Editorial: Hello, And Welcome To My Podcast
In order to advance themselves, and their causes, politicians in democracies have always had to appeal to voters by all means possible. Over a century ago, this meant political pamphlets, newspaper interviews and, not least, a massive set of lungs to make…