2015
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Woman Breaks Leg, Wins Limbo Contest, Parties All Night
Most of the Grapevine staff are what doctors would call “problem drinkers.” Last Friday, we held The Grapevine Music Awards, or #grapeawards, or #grapewards (we are still getting used to social media). We couldn’t call it the GMAs because the hashtag belongs…
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For The Love Of Music: Vaginaboys Made 2015’s Best Song, But How?
The biggest music story to come out of Iceland in 2015 was arguably Vaginaboys, the anonymous, maybe-or-maybe-not-a-supergroup, masked electro-pop-R&B crusaders who released an EP called ‘Icelandick’, played already iconic sets at Airwaves, and made music that managed to be sexy, sad, weird…
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Nipples & Facials – Icelandic Art In 2016
If one were to try and summarize the main Icelandic debates of 2015 in a magazine article, Nipples & Facials would make for a catchy title. It was year when no single artist reigned supreme in shaping the identity of Icelandic culture,…
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Phew! Plenty Of Dudes Nominated For Man Of The Year
There is no need to worry about political correctness taking away the simple pleasure of the “Man of the Year” award as nominations are out and while 3 women have made the cut, we can collectively sigh with relief that at least 8 men…
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Happening Now: Christmas Markets
The holidays are here, and that means it’s time for those traditional Christmas markets, woot! Grab your cash-swollen wallets and get ready to find good offers on junk you didn’t know you (or your loved ones) needed! Elliðavatn The annual Elliðavatn Christmas…
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Airwaves Day Two: An Oral History Of Last Night
Airwaves is great for people watching. Recently, my co-worker Jón Ben has been practicing listening to every conversation in a room while continuing to have his own. This is especially impressive because he’s usually laughing. I decided last night to give it…
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Vote For Icelandic Artists At The Nordic Music Video Awards!
On May 23, the Nordic Music Video Awards 2015 (NMVA) will take place in Oslo, Norway. The jury will be reviewing and choosing winners in the categories of Director, Cinematography, Edit, Art Direction, Post Production, Artist Performance and Performance. There is also…
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Protesters Sprayed, Pushed To The Ground, Arrested
A small group of protesters were met with a water hose and physical force from parliament security, with one arrest for attempting a chalk drawing. The protesters gathered in front of parliament today to point out the fact that it has been…
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Sequences VII: An Introduction
The opening of the seventh edition of Sequences real-time art festival is closing up. To warm you up for this great event Sequences will week by week update you with all the facts you need about artists, venues and happenings from our…
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Thousands Coming To Iceland For the Solar Eclipse
Tourists the world over are coming to Iceland by sea and air in the hopes of seeing the total solar eclipse set to arrive March 20. Vísir reports that four cruise ships are due to arrive in Iceland later this month, carrying…
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PHOTOS: Reykjavík International Games: Archery
The Reykjavík International Games are being held January 16 – 25, and the Archery competition took place on January 17 & 18. The qualification round consisted of FITA triple 40 cm targets for Compound bows and Recurve bows. Archery has always been…
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PHOTOS: Karate at Reykjavík International Games
The Reykjavík International Games are being held January 16 – 25, and the Karate competition took place on January 17, which included individual categories for both Kata and Kumite. Kata is a choreographed exhibition of skill, whereas Kumite is unrehearsed sparring. Emma Lucraft…
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Hope In Dangerous Times
The year 2014 has left me asking what it really means to be Icelandic, and whether that might be something I should feel embarrassed about. Because looking back, I kinda do. For Iceland, last year was marked by a plethora of major…
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We Need 1,000,000 Humans, Stat
At the end of 2014, we find ourselves inhabiting a Western welfare state, a pretty good one thank you very much. However, we need about a million more people to make things more interesting and fun. The coming year will bring endless…
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Shattered Conceptions
In 2014, we saw that politicians are not afraid to attack institutions and ideals that some of us had—naïvely, I admit—come to take for granted. We thought we all agreed to keep public radio alive; we thought we all wanted lower taxes…
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No Authority
Unfortunately, I fear that 2014 will be remembered as the year when Iceland took a turn from being a Nordic welfare state, towards becoming a society marked by neoliberalism and harsh individualism. Iceland’s right-wing government is currently engaging in a full-scale attack…
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Hope And Change
The year that just passed was insane for both me and my family. My battle with alcoholism and (at the time unbeknownst to me) co-dependency continued. I went into rehab in February, only to relapse in April. I was subsequently admitted to…
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A Bottom Line For Culture, Nature And Life Itself
2014 was the year of the Excel spreadsheet. Not in business, where it belongs, but in politics. It‘s all about the bottom line. I’m all for spending wisely, especially when politicians are portioning out taxpayers’ hard-earned money. It’s the “wisely” part I…
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We Need A Revolution
Nature was generous to Icelanders in 2014: the ocean provided, the land was fruitful and we were visited by an unprecedented amount of tourists. If we weren’t stuck with our godforsaken government, we would be doing well as a nation, overcoming the…
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Growth
There is something growing on my back. I can’t see it, but I know it’s there. At first I thought it was a zit, oozing viscous fluid, troubling my back as I went to sleep. As it grew it felt more like…
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Three Lessons From 2014
I think of 2014 as the year in which we learned three important things about our society and the world we live in. First, through new research into inequality—such as Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ and various studies on trickle-down…
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Is This What You Wanted?
I find our race to the bottom unbelievable, along with the velocity at which we’re moving. I would have never imagined that Iceland could turn into the United States in the span of a year, as we import submachine guns and rush…
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The Idiots Had Their Way
Icelanders are amongst the privileged few. Our problems are typical first world problems. But we tend to whine, complain and feel sorry for ourselves. This choir of self-pity was the foundation of 2014. A nation that receives 150 requests for asylum per…