Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.07.2004, Blaðsíða 4
Received sms:
The regulars at Kaffi Vín support you wholeheartedly
100%. It´s about time Icelanders accept the fact that the
world reaches farther out than 200 nautical miles and
includes things that can even be more interesting than
sour food, brennivín and Americanized Vikings.
Finally, someone who´s not acting out of self-interest.
PS. Moli demands a party and we all want to see Vín on
your map.
Oh, well.
Received phone call:
Góða kvöldið. Pétur Pétursson heiti ég og mér langaði til
að benda á málfarsvillu í sambandi við bréf eftir þig sem
var birt í Fréttablaðinu. Þú talar þar um magn af fólki, en
í íslensku talar maður um fjölda fólks og magn af kjöti.
Takk fyrir og gangi ykkur vel.
This would lose the point in English. But at least you know
people are listening to what you´re saying when they call you
up in the evening to correct your grammar.
jxmakela@mappi.helsinki.fi wrote:
The white power community all over the Nordic coun-
tries seems to be mad at you because of some prank you
pulled, involving a black model and a national costume.
What gives?
If nothing else, at least I´ve managed to unite Scandinavian
Nazidom. Now, if only our side would stop bickering among
themselves.
From the stormfront.org website:
Scandinavia nationalist: A liberal commie photogra-
pher got the splendid idea to take a picture of a negress
in the national uniform with some beautiful Icelandic
nature behind to prettify the front page of some business
magazine…
White Iceland: As you can imagine, being an English
paper, many of the writers and readers are immigrants
and the editorial policy is libertarian to leftist…
They then go on to say they smell blood and print my number
and address as well as that of Sheba for any of its mem-
bers interested. But I´m glad to hear that we´re libertarian
commie leftists who run a business magazine. I think that
covers pretty much the whole spectrum. Except, of course, for
Nazism. But apparently Nazis are not the only ones who are
confused:
Heard at a party at the American embassy:
Óli Tynes: You´re all communists!
Grapevine: Why?
Óli Tynes: YOU put a black woman in the national
costume.
Grapevine: And that makes me a communist. Define the
word communist.
Óli Tynes: I don´t have to, you are all communists etc..
Hi.
Thank you for the 3rd issue of Grapevine that I received
today, I have in fact read the others with pleasure. Well
written and edited material. It is useful to have a look at
the country and the people from the outside. But you
should look at one thing: In the Top 8 movies, by Þráin
Bertelsson on page 30 it says: “3. When the Raven Flies”
(Í skugga hrafnsins).
This is confusing. It is the film Hrafninn flýgur
(1984) which in English is called When the Raven Flies
(also Revenge of the Barbarians). Í skugga hrafnsins
(1988) is called in English In the Shadow of the Raven.
Best wishes, Ólafur H. Torfason
You´re a perceptive man, Ólafur. Not only did you notice
the fine quality of the editing, but you also managed to find
a mistake. The film Þráinn mentions is indeed Hrafninn
flýgur (When the Raven Flies), the very film that taught a
generation of Swedes to say “Tungur Knivur.” The mistake
was not Þráins, as we translated his comments ourselves. The
translator would be summarily punished, were it not for the
fact that he is also the editor. Hence, a gentle “better luck next
time” will do.
Dear editor,
All the anchor people at Channel 2 got the latest issue
of Grapevine sent, apart from me. Is this because all my
female colleagues at the channel are blonde and blue-
eyed, but not me?
Regards,
Sólveig Kr. Bergmann
Grapeviners prefer blondes.
Dear grapevine read your paper all three of them ex-
celent. Apart from the ask the American. This is a coun-
try that thinks it’s ok to carpet bomb a whole country to
get one person. And to invade another to find another.
It’s also the only country that has two national sports
sports contests and calls them world contests wwf and
world series. i think you would have been better asking
the teletubbies .
3546984354 [3546984354@mmsc.ogvodafone.is]
But surely you can´t hold the entire population responsible for
the World Wrestling Federation and the war in Iraq . A lot
of Americans are actually quite sensible despite the actions
of a government the majority of them didn´t vote for. Some
Icelanders, even, have been found to be sensible despite the ac-
tions of a government that the majority of them did vote for.
Dear Sir
After visiting the Víkingahátíð (Viking festival) in
Hafnarfjörður I came away an enlightened man. I had
no idea the Vikings had discovered electricity and were
able to use computers, more glasses, watches and smoked
cigarettes!!
I did however know of their tradition for plundering and
stealing, a tradition reflected in the price they charged for
a drink. They robbed me of 950kr for a single rum and
coke. Yours sincerely,
Colin Porter, 101 Reykjavík
We like the Viking festival. But we don´t like the price of
alcohol in Iceland. Vikings should band together and do
something about this.
Dear Grapevine- Crew,
As a foreigner living in Iceland I find it really refreshing
and amusing to read in a magazine how Iceland really is.
In fact you are the only magazine I´ve seen which covers
even negative experiences and reveals that not everything
is quite that “best í heimi” like the Icelanders would like
it to be. It really seems that the Icelanders have a big
problem with being such a small nation and compensate
for this by telling themselves (and no one else would
believe them) that everything Icelandic is “best í heimi”.
Sincerly Yours, becko!
Grapevine -Best í heimi
Dear Jondi, Hilmar and Valur,
If you are able to rise to the occasion, you may very well
create one of those magical whirlwinds about which art
historians write and upon which future writers reflect
for inspiration and validation! If you do not challenge
one another - everyone involved with the paper, writers,
editors, etc. - and hold one another accountable, then you
will create nothing special and simply add to the sewer
we, the public, consume on a daily basis. Please don’t do
that to us.
So here’s my rant…
#1. Editor, you’re not doing your job! You continue to…
The rest of this letter has been edited out.
WULFFMORGENTHALER
see more at www.wulffmorgenthaler.com
LETTERS
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