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Jóhann Jóhannsson: A User’s Manual
He used to play in some pretty rough rock bands. These days, Jóhann Jóhannsson doesn’t employ loud, distorted guitars to get his points across, yet reaches more ears than ever before. The following interview details the story of a certain transformation, one…
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Brian Jonestown Massacre In Reykjavík: You Could Have Had It So Much Better
I had been looking forward to seeing The Brian Jonestown Massacre perform for the longest time. Throughout the years, their albums have given me hours of enjoyment and some of their songs have touched me in a way most rock songs do…
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A Tale Of Two New Year’s
In which a Grapevine staff journalist swaps apartments with a NY couple in time for 2006’s passing. Both parties end up enjoying themselves and learning some new things, despite the alien surroundings… New York City famously outlawed smoking in bars a few…
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Vor
As anyone who spends much time in downtown Reykjavík will attest, finding a good, affordable place to have lunch can be a gruelling task. After a while, all those sun-dried tomato pastas, chicken breast tandooris and mushroom soups lose their charm; what…
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Youth Is Wasted On The Young
The first thing that greeted my companions and I when we entered the sometime-concert venue Broadway on that fateful Tuesday night (after being dutifully frisked by the security staff, of course) was the sight of a dead-drunk 17-year-old boy vomiting furiously on the…
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How to Conduct Your Icelandic Christmas
Even though most western nations are by all accounts becoming more mind-numbingly culturally uniform by the minute, there are still some vast regional differences as to how we go about living our lives and the various customs and traditions that entails. Take…
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A Christmas Flood of Books and Noah’s Freezer Trawler
So, what’s the deal with Iceland’s heavily condensed book market, where almost all of the year’s titles are published in the space of three months? Kristján B. Jónasson: Well, it’s a gift market, one that clocks up sales for about 5-700 million…
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Perlan
Dining at Perlan is always an uplifting experience, if not only for the fact that the restaurant is located near the top of a grand structure, providing an excellent view of Reykjavík. The floor even revolves at a slow and steady pace.…
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The Old Men And The Sea
By no means do I morally disapprove of whaling. Whales are intelligent beings, yes, but so are pigs, chickens and a wide range of other life forms regularly slaughtered and kept in abysmal conditions by the very nations making a fuss about…
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“Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”
Jóhann Hauksson and Sigtryggur Ari Jóhannsson’s recent article in the premier issue of the magazine Ísafold sheds new light on the media law controversy two years ago. The article presents insider accounts of how former Prime Minister Davíð Oddsson attempted to manipulate…
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No Compromise, No Rules
Infamous horror director Eli Roth, a trailblazer in his own right, already has a highly publicised (at least around these parts) relationship with Iceland – he says the idea for his highly successful directorial début, the now classic Cabin Fever, came to…
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Spontaneous Self-Pleasuring
Meeting up with legendary electro hitmongers Daft Punk backstage at NASA for a short interview, just minutes before one half of the eclectic duo took the stage to perform a rare DJ set, the pair made abundantly clear just how French they…
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Experiencing Aurora Borealis Underwater
Four hours of driving unkept gravel roads, over mountains, across fjords, will take you from Reykjavík to Iceland’s other Reykjanes peninsula, the one that’s happily free of international airports, chav culture and naval bases. This peninsula’s claim to fame is an Olympic-sized…
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The Mission is the Goal
“I didn’t pick Iceland. I was assigned it,” says Elder William Ferrell, 22, a native of Utah and a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose adherents are most commonly referred to as Mormons. “What happens is that…
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A Basic Form of Communicating
“Music has been intertwined with my life from the age of six. Actually, I didn’t give up my soul to it until I turned nine and started playing an instrument. After that, there was no turning back, really,” says soft-spoken Valgeir Sigurðsson.…
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Connecting Through Music
Musician Will Oldham – sometimes known as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – has in the past decade or so proved to be an unusually prolific and important voice in contemporary music, expanding his audience and cultural impact with each new release. Although maybe…
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Another Glorious Week of Noise
Once again, the whole of Reykjavík, nay Iceland, braces itself to welcome the annual Iceland Airwaves festival and the plethora of young and exciting musical talent it brings, both local and international. The festival has steadily grown ever since its inception as…
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Caruso
Caruso has long been of the establishments one is bound to notice while strolling down Bankastræti any given night. Its trademark of sorts is an inviting row of candle-lit windows, where one can usually observe a plethora of seemingly satisfied patrons engaged…
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Give Me Consensus or Give Me Death!
A society of absolute consensus could be desirable. Imagine the convenience of walking into a record store that only stocked your favourite releases by your favourite artists. Or walking down food mart aisles stuffed with only your favourite brands of your favourite…
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Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Iceland Airwaves is Coming Again!
Now that last year’s Airwaves hangovers have finally receded to the point that we can once more look one another in the eye, listen to modern music without retching and even contemplate engulfing ourselves in the evil spectacle again, it seems like…
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“A deep, strong hope in its core”
Linus looks up from his lifetime of work as an under-secretary in the Department of Implausible Devices and Vera is standing there, newly come from a wooden crate shipped in haste across the border. She is a bit shy. All of this…
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Silfur
Silfur is a new restaurant at Hótel Borg, run by the proprietors of Sjávarkjallarinn, which is often lauded in this magazine as being Reykjavík’s best for upscale dining. Silfur sees the owners expand beyond Sjávarkjallarinn’s seafood slant, while remaining firmly in the…
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A Staple of Downtown Shopping
There are certain constants that Iceland has to offer its visitors, places that tourist boards and magazines alike have labelled as must-sees, places like Hallgrímskirkja, the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle, to name a few. Some places are like the Westfjords,…
