Some Things Just Don’t Change

The day this paper hits the streets, it will be ten years since the first one did on Friday, June the 13th, 2003. Apparently the young twenty-something-year-old guys, who decided fresh out of high school to go into the publishing business, weren’t afraid of a little superstition.

This past weekend, as I read through old Grapevine issues, it was interesting to see that some things about the magazine and its beat haven’t changed much since then.

Of course, it has grown up in many ways, but in issue after issue from those formative years there seems to be some discussion of, or anecdote about, wasted Icelanders on weekend nights and the significant role this played in finding somebody to shack up with—the Icelandic substitute to dating. There was even a resident Grapevine columnist called “Beerman” who wrote about his trials and tribulations of picking up girls at the bars.

The more I read, the more appropriate it seemed that we were printing our annual Bar Guide (see page 20) in this issue celebrating our magazine’s tenth anniversary. Given all the drinking and partying that went on, it’s remarkable that we got here. But not only did we get here, we’ve also had a pretty good ride.

This issue’s cover—which features 10 significant people who have graced our covers over the last ten years—is a testament to that ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic (turn to page 6 to read more) instilled in us all those years ago.
To celebrate this feat, we cordially invite you to our 10-year birthday party on June 13 (details inside). When the free beer runs out it’ll be sold at 500 ISK, which is what it cost in 2003 when the gang would emerge from their basement on Blómvallagata and proceed to drink themselves into a stupor after sending yet another issue to the printers.

In a couple of hours we’ll be doing the same. Except we’ll be stumbling down from the third floor of Hafnarstræti 15, which is where we now spend our sleepless nights. Like our editorial staff and the staff before them.