Articles by: Valur Gunnarsson
Your Post-Collapse Guide to the Movies
It is a sad fact of life that outside the glorious ten days of the Reykjavík International Film Festival, almost…
The Editors Speak
by Valur Gunnarsson, Bart Cameron and Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson
Valur The first editor My career as editor of Grapevine ended the way it started, being shouted at by ancient…
Capitalism: Its Last 100 Years
Capitalism is dead. This may come as news to no one, but the implications are vast. In fact, it changes…
The Sicilian Connection
“What’s the difference between Iceland and Ireland?” “One letter and about six months.” So ran the joke at the beginning…
Before Björk There Was…
It has always been an Icelander’s greatest dream to be accepted by big city folk. The Sagas are full of…
Where is the Icelandic Aristotle?
Iceland only seems to be large enough to accommodate one, or at best two, points of view at a time….
The Dark Twins
It is always healthy for a society to go through a period of introspection and self-doubt, whatever the cause may…
Five Guys to Turn a Straight Man Gay
Women, whether sitting on panels of beauty contests or destroying each others’ fashion sense around the water cooler, have always…
A Very Brief History of Icelandic Film Making
The history of film making in Iceland only has an unbroken history going back to 1977, and the somewhat underrated…
Where Is The Icelandic Gandhi?
At first sight, Iceland and India have a lot in common. For one thing, they both start with the letter…
Nazi Zombies at the Movies
Like crossing garlic with blue cheese, it’s hard to see how you can go wrong with two such strong ingredients…
Saving Iceland
Most of the major disputes of the past ten years have now been settled. The War in Iraq was a…
Where is the Icelandic Solon?
Sólon Íslandus, whose real name was Sölvi Helgason, was an Icelandic 19th Century drifter and painter who was arrested for…
Does It Matter
In the film Frost/Nixon, former President Richard Nixon wonders if his legacy will be an entire generation of Americans losing…
Icelands 1000 Years: The Road From and to Serfdom
“Those who are considered chieftains in this country are foolishly susceptible to prayer, drink and bribery, but still the simple…
My Colours, My Honour
Former Grapevine Editor Valur Gunnarsson explains the colour schemes he employs in his piece on the Rainbow Revolution, and why…
Iceland’s Rainbow Revolution
Prologue: By early afternoon on January 20th 2009, it was obvious that it was going to be a historic day….
The Day We Started Fighting Back
“We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on!…
The Last Great American Depression
The Last Great American DepressionThe Great Laissez-faire Dream is over. To many, it always seemed like more of a nightmare….
Can We Love the US Again?
We all secretly love the United States. List your top ten heroes, writers, musicians, actors, anything; chances are most of…
Predator for President
In retrospect it might seem obvious, but at the time no one really suspected that two of the stars of…
Dick Cheney is the Dark Knight
After a slew of thought provoking and intelligent films that helped turn public perceptions against the war in Iraq (remember…
The Future of Rock and Roll
Is India the next Manchester?With the world shrinking at a continuously faster pace, far away places are being exposed to…
The Politics of Archaeology
As if to complete the role reversal, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones falls asleep just as Marion…
The Best Depressing Music of the 90s
The early 90s were not a happy time to be young. In between communism and Al-Qaeda, with a Clinton in…