Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.07.2011, Qupperneq 2

120 g Lamburger (lamb), garlic grilled mushrooms, cheese,
lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, sauce Béarnaise and french fries.
Those who taste The Lamburger will hardly be able to believe their taste buds.
THE LAMBURGER
Turninn Höfðatorgi
105 Reykjavik
Tel: 575 7575
Opening hours:
Sun-Wed. 11.00–22.00
Thu-Sat. 11.00–24.00
fabrikkan@fabrikkan.is
www.fabrikkan.is
Gullfoss and Geysir are surely a must-see in
Iceland, but neither is something you eat.
That’s why we have 13 brilliant and creative
hamburgers at Hamborgarafabrikkan
(The Icelandic Hamburger Factory).
Hamborgarafabrikkan would eat Hard Rock
Café for breakfast, but since there is no Hard
Rock Café in Iceland we eat our original
Lamburger with the wonderful Icelandic lamb.
The Reykjavík Grapevine awarded
Hamborgarafabrikkan the “Best Specialty
Burger 2010”. It made us happy. Because we
aim to please. That’s why we only use 100%
fresh high-quality ingredients, directly from the
Icelandic nature.
Attention: Our hamburger buns are not round.
They are square. Does it taste better? You tell us.
Be square and be there.
BE SQUARE AND BE THERE
2
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2011
Editorial | Anna Andersen
The Reykjavík GRapevine
Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík
www.grapevine.is
grapevine@grapevine.is
Published by Fröken ehf.
www.froken.is
Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association
www.saf.is
Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies.
Editor:
Haukur S Magnússon / haukur@grapevine.is
Actting Editor And JournAlist:
Anna Andersen / anna@grapevine.is
JournAlist:
Paul Fontaine / paul@grapevine.is
EditoriAl:
+354 540 3600 / editor@grapevine.is
AdvErtising:
+354 540 3605 / ads@grapevine.is
PublishEr:
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson / hilmar@grapevine.is
+354 540 3601 / publisher@grapevine.is
contributing WritErs:
Hildur Lilliendahl
Íris Erlingsdóttir
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson
Marc Vincenz
Egill Helgason
Bob Cluness
Paul Fontaine
Jón Gnarr
Magnús Sveinn Helgason
Valur Gunnarsson
Egill Helgason
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Clyde Bradford
Joe Shooman
a. Rawlings
Don Freeman
Álfrún Gísladóttir
EditoriAl intErns:
Felix Jimenez Gonzalez / felix@grapevine.is
Marta Bardón Moreno / marta@grapevine.is
José Angel Hernández García / jose@grapevine.is
S. Alessio Tummolillo / alessio@grapevine.is
Melkorka Licea / melkorka@grapevine.is
Natsha Nandabhiwat / natsha@grapevine.is

on-linE nEWs Editor
Paul Fontaine / paul@grapevine.is
Art dirEctor EmEritus:
Hörður Kristbjörnsson / hoddi@grapevine.is
Art dirEctor
Sveinbjörn Pálsson / sveinbjorn@sveinbjorn.com
dEsign:
Páll Hilmarsson / pallih@kaninka.net
PhotogrAPhEr:
Hörður Sveinsson / hordursveinsson.com
sAlEs dirEctor:
Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / adalsteinn@grapevine.is
Guðmundur Rúnar Svansson / grs@grapevine.is
Helgi Þór Harðarson / helgi@grapevine.is
distribution mAnAgEr:
Þórður Guðmundur Hermannsson
distribution@grapevine.is
ProofrEAdEr:
Jim Rice
rElEAsEs:
listings@grapevine.is
submissions inquiriEs:
editor@grapevine.is
subscriPtion inquiriEs:
+354 540 3605 / subscribe@grapevine.is
gEnErAl inquiriEs:
grapevine@grapevine.is
foundErs:
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson,
Hörður Kristbjörnsson,
Jón Trausti Sigurðarson,
Oddur Óskar Kjartansson,
Valur Gunnarsson
The Reykjavík Grapevine is published 18 times a year by
Fröken ltd. Monthly from November through April, and
fortnightly from May til October. Nothing in this magazine
may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written
permission of the publishers. The Reykjavík Grapevine is
distributed around Reykjavík, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Seyðis-
fjörður, Borgarnes, Kef lavík, Ísafjörður and at key locations
along road #1, and all major tourist attractions and tourist
information centres in the country.
You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored (no
articles in the Reykjavík Grapevine are pay-for articles.
The opinions expressed are the writers’ own, not the
advertisers’).
In case you were wondering… You’re seeing an
unfamiliar face on this page because our seasoned
editor Haukur S. Magnússon is out driving around
the country in one of those fancy Happy Campers
campervans this week. And you can read all about
the fun places he’s been visiting in our special
twelve-page travel pullout inside!
I always tell people that if they have one week
in Iceland that they should most definitely rent a
car and explore the island on their own, and try to
spend the nights at small farmhouses in the middle
of nowhere. Now, I suppose it would also be pretty
cool to drive around in a campervan with a solar-
powered refrigerator, sink, stove, and bed. It’s prob-
ably only missing a shower. But that shouldn’t be a
problem, as Iceland has over 130 swimming pools,
and another thing I always tell people to do in Ice-
land is to go swimming.
Then again, you could also opt to forego show-
ering for a week. In the olden days (not that long
ago) Icelanders only showered once or twice a
year… which reminds me of an Icelander my fam-
ily once hosted in California, where I grew up. That
guy brought with him two pairs of socks to last him
three months and they were strategically black
socks to mask their filth. He didn’t shower very
regularly either. We also once hosted an Icelander
who went out biking, bought a big boom box, and
then biked back home with it, but lost his way and
wound up riding on a freeway. Needless to say he
was picked up by the police and given a ride home.
I’m not kidding. But it’s actually not so strange con-
sidering that Iceland’s main throughway Route 1,
which circles the island, is a simple a two-lane road.
But I’ve gone off on a tangent, as The Grape-
vine sometimes allows itself to do. One of the things
you’ll notice about The Grapevine is that it isn’t your
typical travel magazine. While liberties are taken to
have fun with it, it’s also a space where people write
critically about important issues that should inter-
est tourists and locals alike…and that’s what I really
wanted to reflect upon here.
Given the recent tragedy in Norway, I’ve been
thinking about how important it is to be critical and
conscientious of the evils in our world. Though it’s
easy to live one’s life removed from and indifferent
to the injustices in the word—like genocide, racism,
sexism, homophobia, poverty, and corruption—this
makes us complicit in the evil.
To quote Camus: “The plague bacillus never
dies or disappears for good… it can lie dormant for
years and years in furniture and linen-chests…and
that perhaps the day would come when…it would
rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in
a happy city.”
Although Camus warns that crisis can strike any
ordinary town, like it did in Oran, he predicts that,
like the people of Oran, many apathetic people will
be nonetheless surprised to find that they are not
immune to crisis.
Now on that note you should read our interview
with Hörður Torfason, Iceland’s first openly gay man
who helped lead the Pots and Pans Revolution—a
model citizen who refuses to accept injustice.
Grapevine is glad today! And you know why? Yes, it’s
because Grapevine’s favourite new Icelandic rock band,
Ofvitarnir, has finally released an album! And because
that album, ‘Stephen Hawking/Steven Tyler’ is just as
great as the first tracks we gleamed at shows and on the
internet promised it would be. Truly a day to rejoice!
Seriously, we’ve been playing that record all day, all
night ever since it was released a couple of weekends
ago. It’s a style of music we haven’t heard with local
bands for a while, and it’s all done with a passion that’s
too often lacking.
Who are Ofvitarnir? You surely will know some of them.
Notorious multitasker Þórir Georg (of My Summer As
A Salvation Soldier, Þórir Georg, Fighting Shit, Gavin
Portland, Deathmetal Supersquad, etc., etc. fame) leads
the band on vocals and guitar, joined by mysterious vixen
Júlía on bass and powerhaus kitbanger Fannar Örn on
drums. The trio plays a heavy, melodic and grunge-y
sort of punk rock that brings to mind a lot of early ‘90s
alt.heroes like Fugazi, Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. (and even
newbies like Wavves!) on first listen. Some of it’s happy
music, some is depressing, doomy gloom, but all of it’s
pretty great for a listen.
Download the record’s immediately catchiest track ‘O
O O O’ from www.Grapevine.is before heading over to
their record label’s website, www.pbppunk.com, where
you can download the entire album for free (all the
label’s releases are available for free download actually,
but the label—which is probably themselves if we know
the crew correctly—encourages you to buy ‘em at places
like Geisladiskabúð Valda). Enjoy!
Ofvitarnir
O O O O
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Download at www.grapevine.is
TRACK
OF THE ISSUE
Download at
grapevine.is
Anna’s 1st Editorial
Photo: Hörður Sveinsson - www.hordursveinsson.com
Go Drive Around Iceland!
We at the Grapevine were shocked, saddened,
enraged and disgusted by the terrorist attack
in Oslo, Norway last week. Adding to the pain
were how some of our colleagues in the inter-
national press chose to presume the attack was
the work of Muslims, and tenaciously clung to
trying to attribute at least partial blame to Mus-
lims, even after the attacker was revealed to be
a racist Islamophobe. If we are to learn anything
from this incident, it is that the hatred and intol-
erance in Europe needs to be addressed rather
than ignored. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens
Stoltenberg demonstrated this deftly when he
first spoke publicly of the attack, assuring his
people that the ideals of equality, democracy,
and personal liberty shall not be tainted by acts
of destruction. Our deepest, most sincere sym-
pathies go out to the people of Norway. Know
that you are all in our thoughts, as we face the
future of Europe together.