Published February 3, 2012

Well, this is exciting. I wrote a couple of these last summer when Haukur went on vacation, but here I am writing my first editorial as ‘Managing Editor’ of The Reykjavík Grapevine.
As you may have gleaned by now, Haukur left his position as Editor, where he was posted up for the last three years making this wonderful magazine. I am now officially sitting at his desk (the one by the window with all those screaming kids just outside), getting to work on printing more articles by Hannes Hólmsteinn (See page 14).

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Anna Andersen. I walked into The Grapevine offices as an intern after Haukur’s first year as editor. I had just flushed my return ticket to California down the drain and signed up for a few classes at the university thinking I would stick around for six months. But the few classes turned into a master (thesis, still outstanding), and the internship position turned into a journalist position (reason said thesis is still outstanding), and here I am two years later. This is a fairly typical story amongst expats in Reykjavík.

Anyways, Haukur has taught me a lot over this time and I expect that he’ll teach me a lot more because he hasn’t actually left though he left his desk and this country (See: ‘Continental Rift’). And as Editor-in-Chief, he will make sure that I don’t turn this magazine into soft-core tourist porn or an ultra right-wing journal of some sorts. No there won’t be any of that.
Some things are of course bound to change. You will probably see fewer references to The Simpsons and fewer “y’alls” in this very particular space, but we’ll make sure to stay fun and fresh and serious and critical at the same time. Egg our offices and dump stacks of our magazine in the street if you must, but The Grapevine will not go soft or easy. However, dear disgruntled egg/paper thrower, I recommend you make yourself an omelet and you might as well use our paper as kindling—it sure has been a cold enough January.

That said, our intentions are certainly not malicious. Quite the contrary, our intentions are to keep this magazine honest. Now here’s to our collective forces making The Reykjavík Grapevine even better as we continue into its TENTH year of publication.
Happy Þorri and I’ll see you next time! If you’re looking for something fun to do in the meantime, you might check out some of the great festivals happening this month, starting with The French Film Festival (See page 24), followed by The Winter Lights Festival (See the super duper fat program pullout inside), and conductor Ilan Volkov’s new modern music festival after that (See page 17).