Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2011, Blaðsíða 2

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2011
Editorial | Haukur S. Magnússon
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
Journalists:
Anna Andersen / anna@grapevine.is
Paul Fontaine / paul@grapevine.is
Editorial:
+354 540 3600 / editor@grapevine.is
advErtising:
+354 540 3605 / ads@grapevine.is
+354 40 3610
PublishEr:
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson / hilmar@grapevine.is
+354 540 3601 / publisher@grapevine.is
Contributing WritErs:
Rebecca MF Louder
Valur Gunnarsson
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson
Marc Vincenz
Pamina Dittmann
Egill Helgason
Dr. Gunni
Marleen Wolter
Bob Cluness
Ragnar Egilsson
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson
Paul Fontaine
Kári Tulinius
Jón Gnarr
Craig Downing
Hanna Pfurtscheller
Editorial intErns:
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
PhotograPhErs:
Julia Staples / juliastaples.com
Alísa Kalyanova / www. alisakalyanova.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’).
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND
www.grapevine.is
FOOD
Everyone loves it.
Because YUM!
Iceland's WONDERFUL
tolling and taxing system
explored
FILM
Crispin Hellion
Glover is a very,
very cool guy
POLITICS
We welcome our
Chinese overlords!
TRAVEL
We gathered some
berries and visited
Vopnafjörður
COMMERCE
IN THE ISSUE Issue 14 • 2011 • September 9 - 22 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE!+
Meet
HAM
Nutritional Facts
Amount Per Serving % Daily Value
Awesomeness 100%
Flesh 666
Óttarr 0g
Sigurjón 0g
Flosi 0g
Addi 0g
S. Björn 0g
Betrayal 0mg
Grief 9mg
Death 3g
SWANS 1g
Abba 1g
Freddie Mercury 1g
666%
666%
666%
666%
666%
666%
666%
666%
666%
Serving Size 666 Megatonnes
Servings Per Container ONE
RAWKmasters HAM are one of Iceland's most
beloved (and best, goddamnit) bands, yet you've
probably never heard of them! EVERYONE CHILL
THE EFF OUT, WE GOT THIS! PAGE 16
1...2...3... and RAWK! HAM are BACK! And
they are as powered up and fist driving as they
were when they released their last album – IN
19-FUCKING-89!!! In celebration of the release
of their much, much, much overdue second
album, we are frothing at the mouth to give
you all this neck-breaking new track. The title
means “Dead Whore” but don’t let that fuck you
up. It’s really just their self-assessment. What is
important is that these guys can still write some
incredibly good, super-hard and tremendously
fun rock-metal. The simple and slow two-chord
hook line is so stripped down, leaving nothing
to the imagination, exposing all the gritty, dark
bowels of their bass and singer Sigurjón’s boom-
ing bellow. It’s nostalgia for many and new to
others, but bottom line, it’s fucking good. RL
Dauð hóra
HAM
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Download at www.grapevine.is
TRACK
OF THE ISSUE
Download at
grapevine.is
Haukur’s 46th Editorial
On the cover: Sigurjón
Kjartansson and Óttar Proppé
from HAM
Photo by: Hörður Sveinsson
www.hordursveinsson.com
Special thanks: Alí kjötvinnsla
WHY DO WE KEEP LIONISING THAT
WHOLE SMEKKLEYSA GANG?
Please visit
www.fontana.is Hverabraut 1 | 840 Laugarvatn | fontana@fontana.is | Tel: (+354) 486 1400
FA
B
R
IK
A
N
Natural hot spriNg steambaths
soothiNg sauNa
relaxiNg geothermal baths
Selfoss
Reykjavík
Þingvellir
Laugarvatn
Fontana Geysir
Flúðir
SkálholtKerið
Hveragerði
Only an hour by car from Reykjavík and a short distance from
Thingvellir national park and world heritage site, nature has
created unique surroundings for a new bathing experience
– Laugarvatn FONTANA.
Hi,
I hope all you readers
out there are well and
good. Fall is fast ap-
proaching and with
it comes the typical
darkness and doom
and gloom and stuff
(eventually), but I
personally find that all that darkness, doom and
gloom provides a nice counterweight to all the
happy-crappy million hours of daylight that sum-
mer subjects us to.
Yes, I am not unfond of winter. I sorta love
shivering in its dark and cold embrace. And then I
also love when it finally leaves. I try and love every-
thing. I can’t always do it, but it’s not a bad thing to
attempt. I suggest y’all try it.
Now. As we were laying out this current issue of
your Reykjavík Grapevine, I found myself wonder-
ing (as I am wont). This time, I wondered: “Why
do we keep lionising that whole Smekkleysa/Bad
Taste gang and its generation? Why are we putting
HAM on our cover, and why have our covers or
features so often starred esteemed persons of that
group? People like Björk, Jón Gnarr and Sigtryg-
gur Baldursson, to name a few. Why has our ‘HIS-
TORY OF ROCK’ series featured a bajillion entries
about stuff that happened between 1980 and 1985,
while 1970–1975 only got a couple of articles?”
“Why are we holding that generation and its
supposed legacy in such esteem?” I wondered. “In-
deed, are we holding that generation and its sup-
posed legacy in such esteem?” I wondered. “What
about our own?” I wondered. “Shouldn’t we be
featuring some current band on our cover, like, I
don’t know, Reykjavík! or something?” I wondered
[snicker].
I tried answering my own questions. A lot of
the decisions about what we feature and why are
my own, after all. “Of course, the generation that
this group we keep featuring belongs to is com-
ing of age and to power now,” I thought, “and they
are probably very keen on cementing their place
in history and documenting their purported inf lu-
ence. Indeed, some of them, like Dr. Gunni, write
for us. This might be inf luencing our actions and
decisions. And, lest I forget, these people are the
people I grew up admiring and reading about in
various alt.publications, that must factor in some-
where, too,” I thought. “Also,” I thought, “tourists
love them. And we are a tourist magazine.”
“I remember when I was growing up,” I further
thought, “the generation that was then at the peak
of its power and cultural inf luence (and still sort of
is, except now their power is mainly political), ‘The
’68, SUMMER OF LOVE’ generation, they were
very unabashed about tooting their own horns and
making all sorts of claims to greatness. They went
around asserting that they created rock and roll,
love, sex and most other things, and also that they
perfected all of those things. Those self-important
fucks.”
And I thought: “I remember not buying those
self-serving asshats’ shtick when I was a kid, and
I’m not buying it now. But perhaps I and we have
been buying into a different generation’s shtick
and attempts at image making, the one that’s now
sort of ‘in power’?”
“No,” I thought. “Maybe,” I thought. “If so, it’s
important we remain vigilant and try to separate
mythmaking attempts from reality, and remain
critical.”
That gang and generation is probably spear-
heading a reassessment of their cultural inf lu-
ence and importance (who wouldn’t!). And while
they’re doing it, it’s important to remember that
neither did they invent any particular wheels nor
did they redesign them in groundbreaking ways.
But they did get up to some cool stuff, and they did
make some good points, just like their predeces-
sors in the summer of love did before them.
The Bad Taste/Smekkleysa gang, for instance,
actively practiced and promoted a methodology
and ideology that should be an inspiration to us all
(and definitely is to myself). The mode of think-
ing and doing things they promote is an inclusive,
egalitarian and rational one if I am not mistaken;
it is inspired by punk rock and DIY, hell it often-
times IS punk rock and DIY. At their best, they
emphasised doing things for themselves and by
themselves, on their own terms; rejecting restric-
tive and/or suppressive societal values and para-
digms.
They might not have always lived up to those
ideals, but at least they had them, and at least they
strived for something.
An oft quoted cliché from that time and that
gang—one that certainly served as an M.O. for the
Smekkleysa group, goes: “It isn’t what you can,
it’s what you do that matters” [fun fact: this sen-
tence was uttered by then-Purrkur Pillnikk, later
Sugarcube and eventual Ghostigital-er Einar Örn
Benediktsson in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson’s seminal
1982 rockumentary, ‘Rokk í Reykjavík,’ which por-
trayed, mythologised and defined that generation
at a crucial time].
Now, this cliché and this spirit is definitely
something us at Grapevine can get behind. We
have always aimed to be inclusive, liberal and DIY,
and that is not going to change anytime soon.
What I am trying to say is this: by covering
the Smekkleysa gang and its members we are not
claiming they perfected anything and that every-
thing is downhill from there. We are not saying
that they are the epitome, crux or linchpin of Ice-
landic art, culture, music or anything else. We are
not idolising or holding anyone in reverence, and
indeed many of them might well be self-serving
asshats.
No, we mainly feature some of these folks be-
cause a lot of what they do is kinda cool, or at least
bears paying attention to. Furthermore, the idea is
sort of maybe to underline the good parts of their
spirit and ideology, so that they may be an inspira-
tion to ourselves. A motivation to act out, to create,
to do more and better and with a greater frequency.
If we are lionising anything, it is the spirit of DIY,
confidence, independence and irreverence that
some of those people tried to live by, with some
great results (like uh BJÖRK) and some maybe not
so great.
We need to be all disrespectful and irreverent
and confident, we need to make and create our
own, so that we, too, may one day champion our-
selves and our own musicians in print and piss all
over our younger siblings and our kids and what
they think is important.
As for HAM, they just plain fucking rock. God-
damnit.
Oh, and by the way, older generations, when it’s
time to shove you all into old folks’ homes, we will
surely keep in mind how you cut down on all those
education and preschool (and senior citizens’) pro-
grammes when you were in power.
And we will act accordingly.