Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.06.2003, Page 4

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LETTERS
Hello Grapevine
I heard it on the grapevine that there is an English
language newspaper about to start in Reykjavik. In
Prague we have a an English language newspaper
called the Prague Pill.
I remember the day I
picked up the first copy
of The Prague Pill at
my university in Prague
some two years ago. I
was quite surprised and
thought, whoa, there
must be another Prague
out there, a parallell
world to the one I knew!
It was a Prague seen
through the eyes of
people who struggled
with totally unintelligible
street signs and an-
nouncements, battled
bureaucratic rules I never
heard of, and stumbled
upon things that to me
were everyday trivia but
to them were problems
and obstacles, like
“Where do I get my boots
fixed?” These people also
seemed to move through
a different town to the
one I lived in, they went
to pubs and bars I only
vaguely knew of, and
they noticed buildings
and places I had been
passing by without pay-
ing any special attention
to. But first of all, they were virtually taking a crash
course on everything I had always taken for granted:
the unwritten rules and customs, food peculiarities,
traditions, references to national culture and history...
things I had been soaking in all my life, and they had
to absorb instantly. I suddenly felt as if there were two
communities, expat and local, living alongside each
other: like water and oil, they never
mixed.
Well, having lived on the other side of the barricade
now, I must say an expat´s life in Reykjavik seems to
be somehow different. If I had ever felt a dividing line, I
also felt Icelanders and foreigners were equally willing
to break through it, and learn about each other. Which
is exactly where a paper like this could make its con-
tribution - to show what Reykjavik and Iceland look like
through the eyes of a foreigner, and possibly discover
things that people who
have lived here all their
lives have not noticed.
So, good luck and lots
of cosmopolitan-minded
readers!
Beata Rödlingova, Czech
republic
Dear Grapevine,
On behalf of the Multicul-
tural Council in Iceland, I
send greetings and best
wishes to the editors of
The Grapevine. I think
this new paper will be
an important addition to
the media flora in Iceland
and that it will be appre-
ciated by the foreign
community living in the
capital area.
Most newcomers in
the foreign community
inIceland have little or no
working knowledge of
Icelandic and therefore
little access to what is
going on in Icelandic
society. Therefore a
newspaper/magazine in English offers a much needed
window on Icelandic culture. The fact that The Grape-
vine aims to be an “underground” or alternative publi-
cation which talks straight about places and things in
Iceland, may give newcomers a better idea than what
the average native tells them or the slicker tourist
magazines say. I think there is a definite niche for this
kind of paper and wish you great success.
Warmly,
Hope Knútsson, chairperson
Multicultural Council
(Fjölmenningarráð)
Feel like bitching about the weather or the prices, need reassurance but your friends
won´t talk to you, want to open your heart but even the drunks at your local bar won´t lis-
ten, just can´t stop raving about Grapevine or if there´s anything at all we can do for you,
you´ve always got a sympathetic ear here in the letters column (especially for the latter).
Please send your mail to grapevine@strik.is, or just stick it in the mailbox addressed to:
Reykjavík Grapevine, Blómvallagata 2, 101 Reykjavík.
WULFFMORGENTHALER
“Wulffmorgenthaler” is a comic strip made by two
Danish humans, named Mikael Wulff and Anders
Morgenthaler. They´ve got feet, pelvises, the faces
of stupid angels and move like floating, feather-like
dancers. Morgenthaler directs movies, does anima-
tion and in 2003 made two music videos, which where
both shown on MTV. Wulff is a comedian, writer and
called by some people “the cheese surgeon”. For the
past year these two men have produced this strip.
One strip every day. Until now it´s been published
exclusively on the net on www.k10k.net and on their
own site: www.wulffmorgenthaler.com, where it´s
also possible to check out other stuff. There´s the
hideously honest diary of a creature called The Toucan
Kid; a miserable being, that´s 28% bird and way too
emotional and triumphantly fragile. In the strips the
tone shifts between the the slightly surreal, the witty,
the topical and something which is outright disgusting
and involves a whole new depiction of human orifices.
Morgenthaler, who does the drawing, was fed up with
the tiresome meticulousness of drawing clothes on
people so he just stopped doing it. Who cares about
clothes in comic strips anyway? Now every character
in the strip, no matter how mundane the setting, is
naked. And that´s it. It´s not a message. It´s not a call
for flower power hysteria. “Wulffmorgenthaler” does
not in any way condone any form of nudity, non-con-
formist behaviour or spontaneous orgies in any public
areas. No way! ... In the fall “Wulffmorgenthaler” plans
to publish a heavy book full of strips and jokes. And in
the future they´ll work towards getting their work pub-
lished in more printed media like those international
magazines full of glamour and prestige. That way
they´ll get more successful and more people will be
able to enjoy their work, which is fun and original. The
Reykjavik GrapeVine will bring one Wulffmorgenthaler
strip in every issue.