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Fashion, She Wrote: A Look Into The Colourful World Of EYGLO
“I’d like a cortado, please.” That’s a good start. Eygló Margrét Lárusdóttir, the woman behind the eponymous fashion label EYGLO, certainly knows her coffee, and I appreciate that. With long legs clad in a simple semi-camouflage Vivienne Westwood jumpsuit and a fresh,…
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90,000 Guns But No Gun-Related Crimes
In March, an overzealous gun owner shot a few rounds into the air in Kópavogur, a suburb of Reykjavík. He’d just had the gun serviced and was eager to make sure it was in good working order. Pop! Pop! Pop! Police were…
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THIRST_GAMES
Italian men wear wifebeaters and are passionate lovers. French men are skinny and smoke after sex. Brazilian men can dance and are carnal and generous in bed. But now that we’ve gotten racist generalizations out of the way, what about Icelandic men?…
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The Influencers: Snapchat Sovereigns With Iceland At Their Fingertips
Technology has changed the way we consume culture, and social media platforms like Snapchat have provided the everyman with access to thousands. With that the individual has become able to carve out a piece of the marketing pie and become an ad…
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Who Are The Influencers?
Technology has changed the way we consume culture, and social media platforms like Snapchat have provided the everyman with access to thousands. With that the individual has become able to carve out a piece of the marketing pie and become an ad…
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Making Waves: Braving The Sea With Iceland’s Crazy Surf Gang
Hovering precariously at the edge of the incoming tide, surfboard tucked under my arm, I watch as the grey waves crash over one another. The devouring, foaming, monstrous water that I’m about to plunge into is terrifying. Rut Sigurðardóttir, one of my…
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It’s The Winners Of The Fifth Annual Grapevine Music Awards!
What do they have that you don’t? It’s the fifth annual Grapevine Music Awards. Which means that it’s the fifth time we’ve rounded up a panel of expert music nerds for a few rounds of drinks and the chance to hash out…
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Artist of the Year: GKR
Grapevine’s artist of the year award goes to the musician or performer who somehow helped to define the zeitgeist during the preceding twelve months. This year, our panel selected 22-year-old rapper Gaukur Grétuson, whose optimistic, playful, colourful version of Icelandic-language rap as…
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Album of the Year: ‘Black Lights’ by Samaris
We’re riding on Segways. It’s the first time I’ve met Jófríður, Áslaug and Doddi of Samaris and we’re weaving through the summery old harbour on wheels, our roles oddly reversed with the gawking groups of tourists. It was 2013, and the trio…
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Band To Watch: aYia
In UK English, bands are usually referred to in the plural, as “they.” But when it comes to aYia, “it” feels more appropriate. The band’s sudden appearance in October 2016 felt like the arrival of a new entity—or the discovery of a…
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You Should Have Heard This: ‘Andi’ by Andi
Once upon a time, Lady Boy Records received an email, with attachments. Those were pretty much what is now the Andi album. The label usually does not release “readymade” albums, but this one came out of the batch already classic. And boys,…
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Best Live Band: Hatari
From Behind The Godhead Of The Synth Stack Hannah Jane Cohen Hatari has one song on the internet. That’s right, one song. Yet, the band has taken the underground scene of Reykjavík by storm. This one song—”Ódýr”—was played through shitty MacBook speakers…
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Shout Out: Hið Myrka Man
The Fifth Grapevine Music Awards Shout Out: Hið Myrka Man During the last Iceland Airwaves festival, people heard talk of a secret music gathering in Reykjavík’s harbour area of Grandi. It turned out to be true: there was a mysterious private music…
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Song Of The Year: “Sports” by Fufanu
Fufanu have come a long way since they dropped the Captain from their title, and even further since they started out as a minimal techno outfit some eight years ago. In the meantime, they’ve emerged as the heir to the throne of…
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The Short Friendship Of An Icelandic Artist With The Woman Stealing Her Art
[update: the last name of Caroline has been omitted] It could have been awkward, but instead, Inga Maria’s stay at a summer house in þingvellir became a weekend of bonding and sharing, like-minded women connecting as artists and, more deeply, as friends.…
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What Does A Utopian Iceland Look Like? Five Icelanders Talk About The Future
We regularly see articles published in the international press about Iceland, touting it as some kind of ultra-feminist, anti-banker paradise of clean living and social welfare. While we admittedly have it really good, there’s still a great deal that could stand to…
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Shine A Light: The Icelander Who Repaired Every Single Lighthouse In The Country
As you drive around Iceland, the chances are good that you’ll see a lighthouse or two. Unsurprising, considering there are 104 lighthouses all along the nearly 5,000 kilometres of coastline. For most of us, these structures seem almost like vestiges of a…
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Witchcraft and Hypnagogia in Hildur Yeoman’s World of Fashion
Having dressed Reykjavík’s residents in patterned designs and jeweled finery for the past several years, Hildur Yeoman has slowly but steadily become one of Iceland’s leading fashion designers. We met the designer in her workshop as she was putting the finishing touches…
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Stranded In Flateyri: Ólafur Arnalds And The Making Of ‘Island Songs’
I arrive at Reykjavík’s small domestic airport early on Midsummer’s Day, for a morning flight to Ísafjörður. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to join the composer and musician Ólafur Arnalds, and his crew, on a trip to the Westfjörds. Our…
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Eliza Reid: Iceland’s Canadian First Lady
Eliza Reid—once a Grapevine food reviewer—has been working as a journalist and writer in Iceland for over a decade, and is now Iceland’s new First Lady. The Grapevine touched based with Eliza to see what the future holds for her and the…
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From The Past To The Future: An Interview With Our New President, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson
In the wake of the recent presidential elections, Guðni and family have been pretty busy people. As he’s our first new head of state in a generation, we wanted to find out what we were all getting into, so the Grapevine snagged…
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Meet All The Candidates (Except One)!
We at the Grapevine believe strongly in the idea of the well-informed voter. To that end, we asked every candidate running for President of Iceland the same eight questions (with one exception), and every one of them responded, again with one exception.…
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Our Local Regent: Great Moments In Icelandic Presidential History
As hard as it may be to believe, Iceland has only had five presidents since first gaining independence from Denmark in 1944. Since then, while the vast majority of Icelanders believe they should have a president, the question of what the role…