Articles by: Valur Gunnarsson
The True Cost Of The Cold War
Born in the mid-seventies, I probably belong to the last generation to have a clear memory of the Cold War….
Back To Elves, Then
In a recent issue of Time Magazine, columnist Joel Stein talks about how he helped Iceland rewrite its constitution by…
Bjartmar og Bergrisarnir: Skrýtin Veröld
The ‘80s were, perhaps surprisingly, something of a golden age for Icelandic pop lyrics. Socially conscious, verbally biting artists competed…
The Amazingly Accurate Relationship Checkup
The Icelandic dating scene might at first seem like one gigantic free-for-all. But as any sociologist worth his salt will…
Are Icelanders Americanized? Really?
With their propensity for obesity and economic mismanagement, one could be forgiven for thinking of the Icelanders as little Americans….
Killer Volcanoes: A Comparative History
Which country starting with the letter ‘I’ has caused the most international havoc due to volcanic eruptions in the modern…
Whatever Happened to Our Crisis?
In a great article in the last issue of Grapevine (yes, every conversation should start with those words), writer Eiríkur…
Are Icelanders True Romantics? Really?
Walking through Reykjavík late on a Saturday night and observing the natives attempt to go through the preliminary stages of…
Friendship In The 21st Century
One of the things visitors to Iceland, especially those venturing from southern climates, often comment upon is that Icelanders seem…
Bringing It All Back Home
In the 1960s, pop music in Iceland was often referred to as Bítlatónlist (“Beatle music”) and today many even speak…
Is There a Revolution Brewing
I spent part of the weekend with friends in a bar discussing the coming revolution, which now is again beginning…
The Year of the Ox
God Returns To Iceland Part 4The Lord had his heart set on destroying first Iceland, then the world, in punishment…
Four Spirits
God Returns To Iceland Part 3The Lord thought of Pompeii, and wondered why he had let it go at that….
Ghosts Of Pompeii
God Returns To Iceland pt. 2The Lord thought about Pompeii and wondered why he did not do this more often….
God Returns To Iceland
The Lord looked at the world he had created and saw it was—largely—good. Each continent, though different, had its own…
Inspired By Iceland? Seven Songs That Might Have Been!
Lately, we hear a lot about Dubai being the Iceland of the desert or Greece being this year’s Iceland. Iceland,…
Outmooring Michael: Maybe I Should have
After the disaster that was Guð blessi Ísland, one could be forgiven for approaching the latest disaster movie with some…
The Meaning Of Chaos
As I said last issue: To understand anything, you must understand everything. In early 2009, I went to an…
Chaos, and the Future of Art in the 21st Century
So, post-modernism is dead. Its terminal illness began near the start of a new century, on September 11th, 2001. Postmodernism…
Iceland’s Greatest Spy: The Real James Bond
You’ve seen him in the movies. Most famously, he has been played by Sean Connery, Roger Moore and lately Daniel…
Why I Don’t Want to Grow Up
To celebrate my 33rd birthday, I went to see the GI Joe movie. What’s wrong with this sentence? Sure, the…
One Nation, One Party, One Bank Account?
A year after the economic collapse and one can’t help notice that nothing has really changed. The oligarchs, though officially…
Milos Forman’s Masterclass
Milos Forman is sitting at café Hressó, just about the only bar in Reykjavík where one can still sit and…
Dead Girls in the Snow
Every film festival has one semi-pornographic film to generate debate. Last year it was Short Bus, this year it’s Lars…
Skin and bones
These past few years Scandinavians have been busy re-examining their history on screen. The Finns have given us the masterpiece…