Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2011, Page 25

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2011
Eyrarbraut 3, 825 Stokkseyri, Iceland · Tel. +354 483 1550
Fax. +354 483 1545 · info@fjorubordid.is · www.fjorubordid.is
At the Restaurant Fjöruborðið in Stokkseyri
> Only 45 minutes drive from Reykjavík
By the
sea and
lobster
a delicios
WHALE
WATCHING
EXPRESS
TOURS
SPECIAL
Make the most
of your day!
We
offer free

pick-up
in the
Reykjavik
area!
Call us
+354 892 0099
or book online
specialtours.is
HOW
TO BOOK?
Takesonly 2-2
hours
PUFFIN
WATCHING
The Puffin Express adventure
is an inexpensive and
charming option for everyone.
Five times daily: 8:30, 10:30,
12:30, 14:30 and 16:30.
Only
20
Euros!
Spend more time whale
watching and less time
waiting.
Say the keyword and
save 10% of your whale
watching adventure:
Grapevine Special Offer.
Takes
only 1
hour
Sea Angling Trips also
available daily at 18:00.
APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEPT OKT
10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00
14:00 14:00 14:00 14:00 14:00
17:00 17:00 17:00
15 JUL – 15 AUG 20:00 20:00
WHALE WATCHING TOURS
„That was marvellous!
We saw many whales
and dolphins. Fantastic.“
-Samantha
Music | Reviews
Can somebody please FOR THE LOVE
OF GOD enable it so that the next Plas-
tic Gods release has a good producer
and a decent recording budget? We’ve
all experienced the brilliance of their
live show, and they have the ability
and potential to produce THE immense
doom metal album that would make
Neurosis crap blocks of solid fear.
Their latest release is a case in point.
Containing their earliest composi-
tions, ‘Plastic Gods’ is certainly a hard
and undauntingly HEAVY album, with
tracks like ‘Zero Tolerance’ seeped in
great pools of sludge, with grinding
guitars and bass buzzing aural dirt all
over its workings. All the while, singer
Ingó growls through the record like a
bear in heat.
But the album gives the impression
of treading water as they reach the
limits of their current position, both in
their music and recording resources.
‘Heiðar’ does give signs of a new
direction, with the band playing with
varying tones and texture along the
lines of Jesu.
They’ve come this far on their own
merit and you sense the next stage in
the Plastic Gods story is going to be
something truly awesome and terrify-
ing and I for one will revel in it, as well
you should too.
- BOB CLUNESS
Plastic Gods
Plastic Gods
www.gogoyoko.com/artist/plasticgods
They’re almost there. Aaaaalmost!
The opening tracks of this fine, strange
album—‘Innsigling’ and ‘Leggir’—set
up this LP as one containing the best
doomy-blues songs that Nick Cave
only wishes that he could have waved
at as it passed his stupid, goth-y big
head, gazing at a reflection of a Cap-
tain Beefheart album in a river. Yeah,
of blood, obviously. Which makes it all
the more satisfyingly odd when a load
of ‘50s doo-wop crops up immediately
afterwards. And then rock and roll,
‘50s and ‘70s style, a hint of funk here
and there with lasses/kids shadowing
the main vocal with distinctly creepy
effect on ‘Rokkabillíbúgívúgíblús’—a
track which wouldn't sound out of
place on a Roogalator album.
You don't have to like this because
it's a bit strange (though it is, in many
ways both good and probably bad for
you) and please don't listen to it ironi-
cally (you're not from Camden, thank
fuck). Just whack the album on and
get boogying like the man says. Why
the fuck not?
- JOE SHOOMAN
Skúli Mennski
Búgí!
www.mennskur.is
Boogie? Yeah, ok.
This, in turn, has sparked a volley of criticism from
multiple sources. By letting domestic prices reach
unsustainable levels, while not allowing the market to
bring in cheaper goods, the minister is endangering
the domestic market, says Finnur Árnason, the direc-
tor of Hagar. Hagar owns a number of retail chains in
Iceland, including Bónus, Hagkaup and Ferskar kjöt-
vörur (Fresh Meat Products). He adds that the min-
ister has raised import tariffs to such levels that the
country is effectively closed to imports.
Meanwhile, Ólafur Stephensen, the editor of Frét-
tablaðið, responded to the minister's defence of Ice-
land's sheep farmers by wondering what politician is
looking out for consumers.
FREE iPAD!
Some are making their point in more creative ways.
Leifur Þórsson, the director of Fresh Meat Products,
took out a full-page ad in Fréttablaðið offering a free
iPad for anyone who could bring him 600 tonnes of
lamb meat. He emphasises that the focus should not
be on the sheep farmers, but rather on meat export-
ers, and not least of all, the tariffs system in Iceland.
The Consumers' Association of Iceland has re-
leased a statement saying they believe it is imperative
that the minister needs to change his policies on what
products may be imported, and how high the tariffs
can be, for the sake of the country's consumers. They
point out that the parliamentary ombudsman has al-
ready stated that the current policy violates the Ice-
landic constitution.
Conservatives in parliament have seized upon
the opportunity to employ populist rhetoric about Ice-
land's consumers, with Independence Party MP Sig-
urður Kári Kristjánsson calling for legislative changes
that would allow meat to be imported.
But the minister stands guard with his protection-
ist policies, even acting unilaterally and against the
judgement of his closest advisors, admitting recently
that he unilaterally changed import tolls to be based
on price rather than weight, thereby driving up the
price of imports.
While Icelandic consumers would undoubtedly
prefer to buy products made in their own country,
when those products are pointed squarely away from
Iceland, while the same products from abroad are
blocked entry, the protectionist stance the minister
has taken translates to Icelanders having little choice
but to pay more in the grocery store for goods their
own country produces, while being assured this is be-
ing done for their own good.
Continued from page 10
Continued from page 12
WE NEED MORE YUMMY LAMB!
ZOMBIE POLITICS
Actually only twelve percent believe that parlia-
ment is working for the common good. Politicians
are detested. This general lack of trust is of course
worrying—it is not an overstatement to talk about a
crisis of politics.
NEW PARTIES, NEW CHALLENGES
Changes might be in the air. The two opposition
parties are both moving towards nationalism. With
this they cover their bases on the right, probably in-
suring that Davíð Oddsson and his ant-EU followers
do not form a nationalist party to the right of them.
But at the same time they abandon their positions
in the more internationalist centre. This is a place
the Social Democrats would like to fill, but many of
the centre right cannot imagine voting for them. So
there is a void. One person who would like to fill it is
Guðmundur Steingrímsson, a young politician from
an illustrious family, the son and grandson of for-
mer prime ministers of Iceland. He has just resigned
from the Progressive Party and plans to found a new
party—pro-EU, business friendly, pragmatic, with-
out being in thrall to the interest groups that are so
strong in Iceland.
Politics is perceived as lacking in convictions,
integrity, talent and ideas. Being a politician in
this country is an ungrateful task—the pay is also
very bad. But it has to be said that politicians have
disgraced themselves through endless bickering.
Many thought the collapse would be a wakeup call,
but in fact the political discourse has been get-
ting more insufferable. Another challenge to this
system comes from a constitutional committee of
twenty-five people, elected to present ideas for
a new constitution. It finished its task in July, and
now parliament has to decide what to do with them.
Iceland still has an archaic constitution, originating
from the time of the Danish monarchy. Prime Minis-
ter Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is keen on rewriting the
constitution, but the leaders of the opposition are
not. If the government falls, this process will likely
come to a halt.
Some of the members of the constitutional
committee have said that they would run for parlia-
ment if this happens. This might actually be what is
called for in Icelandic politics, candidates who are
totally untarnished by the old and discredited party
system.