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An Icelandic Chef In The Big Apple: Chef Gunnar Karl Alights at Grand Central
On a typical day, 750,000 people pass through Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. That number—twice the population of Iceland—includes hurrying commuters and shutter-happy tourists. But a new fixture in Grand Central now brings a different kind of foot traffic to this…
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Last Words: “Schmuck?”
Piss-warm Gull was beginning to dull my taste buds and whet my tongue. I was at a house party, debating organized religion. Someone found it distasteful in all of its manifestations. I begged to differ. He seemed to think religion was faith.…
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Friendly Ghosts And Langoustine: A Day In Stokkseyri
It’s snowing in Hellisheiði. Powdery drifts sweep over the narrow strip of asphalt that cuts through the snow-laden mountains. Like any trip south along Route 1, our journey to Stokkseyri begins with a steady climb over this high plateau that separates the…
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Happening Tonight: Icetralia
Icelandic comic and cartoonist Hugleikur Dagsson has teamed up with Aussie ex-pat Jono Duffy to put together this recurring comedy event in Café Rosenberg. Their comedy, as they promise, is like themselves: the former “filthy and friendly,” the latter “gay, Australian, and…
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A Close Encounter With The Arctic Fox
Skimming briskly along Ísafjarðardjúp, the large bay that cuts between the Westfjords’ northernmost and middle tines, I lose phone service and geographic reference at about the same time. Snowy mountains jut into the deep from every direction, giving me the sense that…
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Three Weird Tricks To Ensure An Elf-blessed Time In Iceland
Get yourself a Northern Lights timetable: If you’ve ever had one of those days where everyone is going on and on about how beautiful the Aurora were last night, but you were fast asleep, or busy painting your nails and having a…
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Aldrei Fór Ég Suður Puts Ísafjörður In Focus
Ísafjörður wants you to know that it’s awoken from wintry slumber and it’s celebrating with the thirteenth annual Aldrei fór ég suður festival. Never mind the thick layer of ice caked onto the streets, nor the piles of snow obscuring all but…
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Aldrei For Ég Suður Festival Announces New Venue
The thirteenth installment of Aldrei fór ég suður, a music festival held annually on Easter weekend in Ísafjörður, will take place in a brand new venue this year, the festival organizers announced at a press meeting this morning. No, a massive concert…
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I <3 U Bónus Avocados
If you’ve ever found yourself pushing your cart through the bright reds and yellows of generic brands at your neighborhood Bónus, thinking to yourself that nothing is real—not this store, not this food, not your life—don’t worry. Even though you’re born to…
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Icelandic Words That Didn’t Make The Cut: Hairy Berry And Flat Pies
The Icelandic language is famous for rejecting loan words, offering up novel neologisms constructed from native components instead of adopting foreign words. To the relief of language purists, these new words usually stick. Some words, however, just don’t roll off the tongue.…
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SNOWMAGEDDON! In Pictures!
Mama Nature is not taking a break here in Iceland. Never mind that Reykjavík had already been layered thick with powder over the weekend; snow has been falling continuously since the wee hours of the morning. To make matters worse, it’s just…
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Clever Airwaves Hacks For the Savvy Traveler
It feels like Christmas in July in Reykjavík, though it’s neither July nor Christmas. Albeit, Laugavegur is beginning to look a bit like Christmas and Jóla Bjór is on tap at most bars around town, but I digress. What I mean to…
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Don’t Miss RWSRWS, Presented By Grandabræður
Maybe you’ve seen the capital letters “RWS” painted in various corners of downtown; maybe you’ve seen the cryptic wheat pasted posters that popped up a couple nights ago; maybe you’ve seen none of it, but this sounds like a mystery worth checking…
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Sounds Of Strife: Music Collaged From Former Conflict Zones
Looking for a way to ease into the weekend? Ambient musician Sam Slater will bring his rich, haunting soundscapes to Mengi this Friday. This Berlin-based Brit spent half of 2014 traveling, collecting field recordings from regions that have recently undergone major conflict: beginning in…
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I Woke Up Like This: Making 101 Flawless With Reykjavík’s Morning Cleaning Crew
Seagulls bicker over a pile of soggy vomit. House music and drunk banter pour out an open window. Smashed glass, cigarette butts, and pizza crusts pepper Laugavegur’s cheery, pastel-painted asphalt. Yesterday’s lingering carousers tumble home, ceding the streets to the waterproof tourists…
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Cycle Music & Art Festival: Conceptual Art Comes To The Suburbs
This August, an exciting new festival comes to Kópavogur. Cycle Festival, a four-day interdisciplinary arts extravaganza, will showcase unconventional works and collaborations in unfamiliar performance venues, with the goal of making audiences reconsider their preconceptions about genre, discipline, and the spectator’s role.…
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Don’t Let Them Do That To You: In defence of MoMA’s “Björk”
If you’ve read coverage of the recently opened Björk retrospective at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, chances are you’ve read a searing critique ripping the exhibit, its curator, and the museum to shreds. Art critics from esteemed publications have seized upon the…
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A Steady Heartbeat
The Reykjavík Dance Festival is no stranger to flexibility and experimentation. Founded in 2002, the festival has provided Icelandic and international choreographers an unparalleled platform to showcase their work to an audience that may not have exposure to the world of contemporary…
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The Book Cellar’s Book Seller
Narratives of Reykjavík’s used book culture often take the form of jeremiads—languorous laments for a bygone heyday, a paradise lost through, by and with the fall of print media. By some estimations, there used to be as many as forty secondhand book…
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We Own This Town
It came as a surprise to many when Reykjavíkurdætur appeared on the line-up for this year’s instalment of Eistnaflug—the female rap collective might not have seemed a logical fit for the metal festival, the name of which translates to “Flying Testes.” Unfazed…
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Crossover Appeal
Since 1997, The Icelandic Drag Competition (Draggkeppni Íslands) has grown from a small low-frills, nightclub function into a full, fabulous production, fit for Eldborg, Harpa’s main stage. This year’s competition on August 6 will pit four pretenders to each of Iceland’s drag…
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Best Place To Cool Off On One Of Those Icelandic Scorchers
It’s 15 degrees. Fahrenheit? No, Celsius. Shorts weather? Fuck you, it’s underwear weather. The sun bears down on a thick, humid Reykjavík day. The sunbathers in Austurvöllur have burnt to a crisp. You’re parched, you’re sweaty. Does anywhere in this country have…
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Weather Or Not
Red sands, yoga, seal-watching, camp games and nightly concerts in a barn—the only thing the organisers of Rauðasandur Festival couldn’t promise was good weather. The festival, held during the first weekend of July at a remote farm in the West Fjords, is…
