Published January 6, 2012

Dearest readers, friends, collaborators and contributors, I would like to start this little letter by sending you some well wishes. Happy coming 2012! Happy leaving behind 2011! Happy happy, joy joy. Happy New Year!

That out of the way, I want to tell you a bit about some changes we are making at the paper you’re reading.  Change is fun. Everyone loves change. Some people fear change, but there’s no reason to. When you think about it real hard, you’ll realise that. And I believe the changes we’re currently making will serve to make Grapevine a stronger publication, with funner, informativer articles and betterer grammer, english and speling (not to mention; punctuation!!!!!)!

But before these changes are brought up, I want to tell you a little about what went on this past year. 2011. For the most part, it was Business As Usual (which is one of the reasons change is welcome, STAGNANT STASIS is no state for any self-respecting publication. If you read Deleuze and Guattari’s Milles Plateaux, you’ll definitely agree. What a book! What a book!).

January came and went. And so did rest of the months. In May, our lovely half-journalist Anna Andersen turned into a full-time journalist, a post she has retained since (and done a great job of!). Our trusty designer Páll Hilmarsson went from being freelance to full-time in August I believe, and he has since been hard at work making our new website (it will launch in 2012, and I do believe it will be pretty goddamn awesome, at least if his work on www.airwaves.grapevine.is/ is anything to judge by) when not laying out our articles and pictures and illustrations.

We had a bunch of interns and they were all pretty much awesome. And then, of course, there are all our wonderful contributors, that make sure we can feature stuff worth reading in every issue. They’ve been diligently writing, drawing, photographing and making whatever else it is we print every other week (every month in wintertime). When I think of all the people that contribute to making Grapevine and I’ve had the pleasure to work with I get all wet eyed and embarrassing to look at. What fun it is to get to collaborate, create and disrespect musician’s babies with such people. What wonderful fun!

Now. Here’s what’s coming up:
As of sometime in January, I will be moving to a different country so I can hang out with all the wonderful people there. I will return every now and again, hell I might move back in June or something (I might not even get permission to live there—I had to get my lungs photographed for a visa and god knows how those suckers look by now). I will stop being Grapevine’s Editor. Instead, I will assume a part-time position that’s called ‘Editor-in-Chief’ (I’ve always wondered what that meant btw—I plan on explaining what it will mean at GV in a couple paragraphs) that I will be doing from abroad using my fancy computer and telephone.

Meanwhile, the lovely and aforementioned Anna Andersen will be assuming the newly created post of ‘Managing Editor.’ What is a ‘Managing Editor’? Well, it’s basically an editor that makes a magazine, much like I have been doing, except some of the responsibilities and duties of the job ‘Editor’ will shift towards the other-newly-created-post of ‘Editor-in-Chief.’ Are you confused yet? Good.

Anna will manage the paper from day to day. She will work with our writers on their stories and provide feedback and counter-ideas and pester them with deadlines and whatnot. She will in all effect run Grapevine, and she’ll do a fine job of it! Welcome Anna! As for myself, I will try to make sure Grapevine gets more awesome; I will collaborate with Anna on making it, and I will try and find ways of executing some of the great ideas all of y’all keep coming up with. I’ll also collaborate with our art director and designer in making some much-needed changes to the layout and structure of this thing. Etc. I will be formally responsible for whatever we print. Basically, you will be able to thank Anna for the stuff you like and hate on me for whatever you’re miffed about (also: spelling errors and tpyos!).

OK I hope this about explains it. If it doesn’t, I’ll be happy to answer any questions via email or at the bar or whatever. Also if you’ve any ideas on how to make the paper better, I’ll pass them on to Anna.  Now, in my first editorial, fifty editorials ago, I wrote something of a mission statement. It went like this:

“As editor of the Reykjavík Grapevine, I promise you reader types out there to do my very best to keep it an honest, truthful, empathetic, vigilant, insightful, humorous, tumultuous, alert, informative, dumb, punk-rock, reflective, DIY, understanding, gimmicky, unprejudiced, rebellious, senior, scathing, agile, dumb, multi-layered, rocking, witty, reliable, informative, snarky, defensive, political, cultured, kick-ass, clever, trite, true, corrosive, insubordinate, shameful, reliable, youthful, sXe, HxC and THC read. At the very least an honest one, one that strives to reflect the community it springs from and the multitude of perspectives that make it. This is a goal.”

I am fairly satisfied with how that all went. If nothing else, I’m certain it’s been dumb and honest. Thank you for the last three years. It’s been a blast. Sniff.
Love,
Haukur SM