Author: - The Reykjavik Grapevine

A Guide To All Those Icelandic Yule Brews

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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

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You have probably read somewhere that Icelandic authorities banned beer for very, very many years, until 1989. But true freedom…

Six Years Ago

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Hooray! We turned ten this year. For a humble street rag like Grapevine, turning ten is a pretty big deal—we…

Year In Sports

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2012 was a great year for Icelandic sports. It might even have been the best one yet, although such a…

Farewell Jóhanna

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Iceland’s incumbent Prime Minister and longest serving active Member of Parliament Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir announced her retirement from politics at the…

The Impossible Feat

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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

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I appreciate a good statue more than most people. This may be because of my background as a stonemason. I…

Iceland Airwaves Warm-Up

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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

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Sesselja Vilhjálmsdóttir and Valgerður Halldórsdóttir are two young successful entrepreneurs, currently in the midst of making a film about their…

Gender Rule Statistics

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The chart above demonstrates changes between  years for ministers in the Icelandic government  by gender. As you can see, the…

Look Who’s Back!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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In 2006, Össur Hafþórsson’s interest in tattoos led him to organise the first Icelandic Tattoo Convention. After the third successful…

Skrúður

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Julefrukost, or Christmas buffet, is an old Scandinavian Christmas tradition that has grown very popular in Iceland in recent decades….

Involuntary treason

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Páll Skúlason is professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland, and former Rector at the same institution. A Grapevine…

Einar Ben

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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?

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Barack Obama’s call for change resonates as deeply in Europe as it does in the US. The new leader of…

The Skeleton Economy

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The Icelandic economy has crashed. The government has nationalized all three of the major banks in Iceland and most Icelandic…