Author: Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
A Guide To All Those Icelandic Yule Brews
Encouraged by the hoopla around the annual Tuborg Julebryg release, brewers all over have long since started crafting special seasonal…
Beer Connoisseur’s Guide To Icelandic Beer
You have probably read somewhere that Icelandic authorities banned beer for very, very many years, until 1989. But true freedom…
Six Years Ago
Hooray! We turned ten this year. For a humble street rag like Grapevine, turning ten is a pretty big deal—we…
Year In Sports
2012 was a great year for Icelandic sports. It might even have been the best one yet, although such a…
Farewell Jóhanna
Iceland’s incumbent Prime Minister and longest serving active Member of Parliament Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir announced her retirement from politics at the…
The Impossible Feat
Director Baltasar Kormákur is to Icelandic film what Sigur Rós is to Icelandic music. After successfully making the Hollywood box-office…
THREE NOTEWORTHY REYKJAVÍK STATUES
I appreciate a good statue more than most people. This may be because of my background as a stonemason. I…
Iceland Airwaves Warm-Up
For years, the staff of the Iceland Airwaves festival has worked tirelessly to promote the festival abroad as an exciting…
Examining the Start-Up Culture
Sesselja Vilhjálmsdóttir and Valgerður Halldórsdóttir are two young successful entrepreneurs, currently in the midst of making a film about their…
Gender Rule Statistics
The chart above demonstrates changes between years for ministers in the Icelandic government by gender. As you can see, the…
Look Who’s Back!
Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, I have been called upon in this hour of need to briefly (and somewhat…
Jonsí is Way Out West
It is closing in on midnight in Slottskogen in Gothenburg and singer M.I.A. is the last act to take the…
Here Come The Creatives
Reconstructing the Icelandic economy will take more than increased fishing quotas. More than a new aluminium smelter. It will require…
Obscura Day: Celebrating the Obscure
Joshua Foer has made a name for himself as a freelance science journalist for various publications such as Slate.com, New…
Your Last Chance To Go Skiing
The Icelandic ski season is surprisingly short, and we sure as hell haven’t managed to produce the same number of…
The View From Afar
It has been six months since I upped and left. Six months since I said: “Hell no! I won’t be…
The Angry Sex Election
Here are my thoughts on the recent parliamentary election in Iceland. … … … That’s it. That was the…
Slaughterhouse: A Culture Center – The Peregrinations Of A Grapevine Photographer And A Journalist In Egilsstaðir
It is midday when a Grapevine photographer and journalist get on board a plane heading to Egilsstaðir on the east…
It’s the Innovation. Stupid!
Hjálmar Gíslason is a computer programmer who has launched four start-up companies in the last 11 years, and some of…
A little Shop of Ink
In 2006, Össur Hafþórsson’s interest in tattoos led him to organise the first Icelandic Tattoo Convention. After the third successful…
Skrúður
Julefrukost, or Christmas buffet, is an old Scandinavian Christmas tradition that has grown very popular in Iceland in recent decades….
Involuntary treason
Páll Skúlason is professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland, and former Rector at the same institution. A Grapevine…
Einar Ben
The restaurant Einar Ben is named after one of Iceland’s national heroes, the early 20th century poet and entrepreneur Einar…
Can He Save Us, Too?
Barack Obama’s call for change resonates as deeply in Europe as it does in the US. The new leader of…
The Skeleton Economy
by Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson and Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
The Icelandic economy has crashed. The government has nationalized all three of the major banks in Iceland and most Icelandic…