Reykjavík
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Civilisation?
I just returned from a little jaunt to London. It was my birthday and my brother, in his infinite generosity, bought me a return ticket to spend time with him and friends. I admit that as the plane left Keflavík I was…
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Reykjavík, I Love You
It’s true, Reykjavík. I love you. You’re not even bringing me down or anything. I just love you. Thanks for being all you are. You know, I think you’re awesome for all sorts of reasons, and even though we often have our…
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IT HAS TO BE FUN
In September, Japanese pop art legend Yoshimoto Nara visited Iceland to open his exhibit “Crated Rooms.” Heavily influenced by the anime and manga movements of the 60s, Nara made a definitive name for himself during the J-pop movement of the 90s. Nara’s…
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Artist Vs. Artist
Egill Sæbjörnsson and Davíð Örn Halldórsson are both prominent young artists that have been raising eyebrows all over for a while now. With good reason, too, as their art is, in all honesty, pretty damn good. Lucky for us denizens of Reykjavík,…
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READ THIS COLUMN DON’T READ THIS COLUMN NOW READ
I recently saw a Norwegian sketch on Youtube about the invention of the book. A medieval man has just gotten his first book and can’t seem to get it to work, so he has to ask for help. A help desk employee…
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Absolutely Fable-ous!
Twelve volumes and counting, with no end in sight, Fables by Bill Willingham is probably Vertigo’s finest on-going series. It tells the story of a particularly special community of immigrants in New York—namely, characters out of fables. Snow White, Prince Charming, Beauty,…
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Technical Difficulties
The Sequences festival was formally launched a week ago, on Friday October 30th. I had heard that major sponsors had been backing out throughout last year due to the financial crisis. I don’t know if this is true, but it would certainly…
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I’ll Have What He’s Having
Are you tired of writing your own damn poems? Does it feel like you’d rather plunge through the fiery gates of hell rather than come up with one more metaphor/ simile/ aphorism to explain the human condition? There’s so much poetry in…
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Art In Sequence, Real-time!
The Sequences arts festival has been pretty awesome these past few years. It is a unique offspring of the big happy Icelandic arts family, and it takes place every October. At Sequences, artists from Iceland and all over the world gather to…
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Dungeon (The Series)
French humour has sometimes been described as “not funny” or “weird”. Lewis Trondheim is both French and funny. He’s so prolific as a cartoonist that it’s tempting to think he runs a sweatshop with tubby little illustrators that are fed with croissants…
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Speaking Like A God
They say human beings use language to make sense of their surroundings. We frame, categorise and systematise the objects around us with the help of nouns and verbs and adjectives. The sky is blue. The horse gallops swiftly. The sentence is a…
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Oh No! It’s the Radiophonic Paramilitaries
Regardless of whether cinema used to be truth 24 times per second or lies at the same rate, it is now becoming something else entirely. It is tempting to make some grand declaration—it is always tempting to make grand declarations. But perhaps…
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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 von Trier’s Antichrist that gets the job done. Trier seems, like his compatriot Lukas Moodyson, to believe that the filmmaker’s task is…
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Frank Castle, The Punisher: Six Hours to Kill
Like so many readers and writers of this beloved mag, you’re probably a bleeding heart liberal. You’re against whale hunting and capital punishment. That’s okay, this reviewer is too. Kinda. On a good day. Well, killing is wrong. Even killing killers (even…
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Funny, Colourful Filth
The comic strips in “The Trial of Colonel Sweeto” are hilarious and multicoloured and filthy like uhm…. like rainbow poop. The majority of PBF strips have these simple white bald smiley-face characters. Those and the humour are the defining recognisable trades of…
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A Traveler’s Guide to Icelandic Folk Tales
While traveling around Iceland, tourists will often hear stories of Icelandic folk legends. In A Traveler’s Guide To Iceland, Jón R. Hjálmarsson attempts to provide some insight into these tales. To that end, he invites the reader on an imaginary road trip…
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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 everything being served in the cinemas here is standard Hollywood fare. So, being forced to choose between shit and dirt, let us…
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Babe, come onto me
Lo, the oogly woogly wiggly toes of my puffinous pinkster! Lo, the perpetual whirlpool of his gung ho rainbows! Lo, the sabre-dancing jiggifunk of his eyeyeyeyeyes! Behold his umpteen-breasted olympic warrior, mother-of-it-all, and recognize! Lo, his oceanaut stereo-grip on the world, udderly…
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Metaphors To Save You At Sea
When the unpredictability and trepidation of the sea becomes symbolic for a nation’s political saga, it’s not bewildering that several contemporary Icelandic artists feel perturbed. Maybe they see this obscure juxtaposition as an ever-growing concern within their art? Rowing Bout Politics The…
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The Longest Poem in the World
Three hundred and fifty thousand, seven hundred and fourteen verses. Twenty lines per verse, and every line rhymes with the following one. That’s how long Andrei Gheorghe’s poem is. It’s almost four times longer than the Mahabharata of ancient India. Forty times…
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Troll’s Cathedral
Trolls´Cathedral (original Icelandic title Tröllakirkja) is the first part of an acclaimed trilogy by author Ólafur Gunnarsson (the two other being Potter´s Field and Winter Journey, respectively). The novel was published in 1992 and nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize the same…
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Children’s Reykjavík
By the time adults have children, they’re often out of touch with kid culture and need help figuring out what to do all day with their three-foot wonders. Even once things get going reasonably well, it’s easy to get into a rut…
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Dance Party!
Iceland is well known for boasting an impressive art community of every sort and for every walk of life, and dance is no exception. Although the size of the dance community is directly proportional to the size of the country, the quality…