Published May 18, 2007

Finally, the elections are behind us and we can all exhale and relax a little bit. At least until the presidential election next year. When is it time to start discussing candidates for the presidency anyway? Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, our current president might not seek re-election so we could have an exiting election ahead of us. Boy, I am exited just thinking about it, and I don’t even know who is running.

Last week (well, depending on when you are reading this I guess) the French street theatre company Royal De Luxe visited Reykjavík with their giant puppets, putting on a production that lasted for two days. It was a great show that caught the attention of most Reykjavíkians. Obviously, an eight-meter high doll is hard to miss.

My favorite part of the production however, was the artificial geyser that was located in a car park in Vesturgata, just outside my office window. Herds of people gathered everyday to watch the geyser burst out a column of hot water. It was such a great attraction in its simplicity. I think it is amazing that we, Icelanders, need a French theatre company to get such brilliant ideas for us. I mean, we pretty much invented this thing called geyser. Now, the theatre company is gone, and so is the geyser.

So, this is my call to city officials. Please, can we get another one up? I think Lækjartorg Square would be a perfect location. Let’s face it: Lækjartorg Square is the ugliest city square in all of Europe and possibly the world. It serves no purpose what so ever in its current condition. We need to rebuild the square, give it some sort of function, some attraction, and I really could not think of anything that would better serve the square than a hot geyser, spewing out water, and attracting tourists. Can’t we make this happen?

In this issue of the Grapevine, we are making some changes, adding new sections and re-defining old sections. In a celebration of the upcoming summer, we have brought you not one, but two covers. Make sure you get a copy of both for your collection.