Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.12.2011, Qupperneq 2

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 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
Journalist:
Anna Andersen / anna@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:
Sari Peltonen
Marc Vincenz
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson
Bergrún Anna Hallsteinsdóttir
Gerður Jónsdóttir
Rebecca Louder
Kári Tulinius
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson
Valur Gunnarsson
Donald Gíslason
Bob Cluness
Ramunas Bogdanas
Jake Harris
Ragnar Egilsson
Siggi Pönk
Paul Fontaine
Kári Tulinius
Editorial intErns:
Monika Domeniková / monika@grapevine.is
Clyde Bradford / clyde@grapevine.is
Jesse Ziebart / jesse@grapevine.is

on-linE nEWs Editor
Paul Fontaine / paul@grapevine.is
art dirECtor:
Hörður Kristbjörnsson / hoddi@grapevine.is
dEsign:
Páll Hilmarsson / pallih@kaninka.net
PhotograPhErs:
Alísa Kalyanova / www. alisakalyanova.com
Hvalreki
salEs dirECtor:
Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / adalsteinn@grapevine.is
Guðmundur Rúnar Svansson / grs@grapevine.is
Helgi Þór Harðarson / helgi@grapevine.is
distribution managEr:
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
POLITICS Pirate parties, collapsing governments, small states
TRAVEL Monster trucks and a miniature Iceland! LITERATURE Bought or borrowed
MUSIC A '90s kid remembers the '90s quite fondly
OCCUPY No wait, was that last month?
IS ICELAND REALLY AN IDEAL
ENVIRONMENT FOR FEMALE MUSICIANS?
We explore with the help of Lay Low, sóley, Adda, Myrra Rós and others
IN THE ISSUE Issue 18 • 2011 • December 2 - January 6 2102 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE!+
Check out our
Xmas special inside!
Haukur’s 50th Editorial
Photography: Hörður Sveinsson
www.hordursveinsson.com
Art direction: Hristbjörnsson
Stylist: Hulda Halldóra
Tryggvadóttir
Make-up: Vigdís Jónsdóttir and
Tinna Gunnarsdóttir
Special thanks to Hótel Holt, Fríða
Frænka and Rokk og Rósir
I’ll Stick To My Simplistic Naïveté

www.fontana.is Hverabraut 1 | 840 Laugarvatn | fontana@fontana.is | Tel: (+354) 486 1400
FA
B
R
IK
A
N
…Laugarvatn, where, deep in the ancient earth, the devil boils
the local waters to impossible temperatures.
But by the time the engineers of Laugarvatn have finished
siphoning them around the town’s old steam bath, the hellish
waters have cooled to a delightful outdoor warmth.
I had an adventurous natural sauna,
followed by an adventurous natural hot bath.
– Waldemar Januszczak, www.waldemar.tv
The Devil’s Own Hot-Pot?
Open daily
You know that scene in that
old Simpsons episode
when Homer gets a job at
a bowling alley and all of
the sudden he feels hap-
py and content and his
posture improves and he
loses a bunch of weight and
his hair grows back?
And then when he learns that Marge is preg-
nant again and he’ll need to go back to work for
Monty Burns and instantly his belly sort of plops
out, all his hair falls off and he slumps down like a
defeated mollusc?
You saw that, right?
That scene pretty much nails what happens ev-
ery time I go on, and subsequently return from,
vacation.
I’ll leave the country and stop imbibing news
and angry blogs and Facebook statuses about Ice-
landic politics and politicians and officials and
banksters and celebrities, and slowly but surely
a weight is lifted from my shoulders and I start
feeling and acting all happy and content and I lose
weight and my hair pretty much stays the same,
but it’s more vibrant and voluminous and I get
these really cool curls.
Then I’ll be on my way home and a f light atten-
dant will hand me the latest copy of Fréttablaðið.
And, you know, just looking at the cover makes
my gut plop out again and by the time I’ve leafed
through the thing I’m back to being my old, sad,
miserable slob of a self. I’ll hunch in my seat (20A
if I can help it) and shiver, nursing a G&T while
dreading the fact that I am once again throwing
myself into all that wonderful, enlightened, intel-
ligent, and rational discourse.
And I’ll wonder if my own contributions to our
ongoing conversation (if whatever it is we’re do-
ing can be thought of as ‘a conversation’) are of
the same ilk, and I’ll usually reach the conclusion
that they probably are, even though I try my best
to avoid this (it is generally much easier—not to
mention more satisfying—to find faults in others
than in oneself).
I’ll try to think of ways out. Not for myself,
but for all of us. At which point do we stop all the
shouting and get back to being, like, nice to one
another and not assuming everyone has an evil ul-
terior motive with everything they do and that ev-
eryone that doesn’t completely agree with us about
everything is a sociopath or stupid or both.
(Not that there aren’t evil and stupid socio-
paths out there that are totally willing to throw
everyone and everything under the bus for their
own personal gain. There are plenty of those. But I
refuse to believe that such human stains make up
the majority of us, and I don’t think we should let
these bad examples taint our views of our brothers
and sisters. Most people I’ve met are pretty nice
and thoughtful when given the chance).
At which point do we acknowledge that we are
mostly in this together, and we are all humans that
probably all share the same dreams of inhabiting
a peaceful and pleasant community where our
siblings and children (and we!) can grow up and
make the most of themselves in.
(We all want that, right? It seems like a pretty
solid and reasonable goal.).
There has been a lot of anger ever since a lot
of us realised we’d sort of been living a lie for the
majority of the ‘90s and ‘00s, and there still is a
lot of anger and this is totally understandable and
it was definitely provoked. And angry energy can
be useful for a lot of things—it certainly helped us
accomplish some cool stuff in January of 2009.
But it’s probably a bit like sugar or hard drugs
or popular soft drink Mountain Dew. It gives you
a sudden rush of energy, and then you fizzle away
and feel all tired and ruined. Angry people are
pretty apt at destruction and deconstruction (those
things were very much needed here, and in some
areas still are) but they are rather poor at listen-
ing and empathy and building stuff and fixing it
(those things are definitely needed here).
Oh I’m probably being totally naïve here. I’m
a pretty naïve guy, and this whole ‘all of us at our
core just want to coexist peacefully and build a nice
society for our children’ shtick is likely far too sim-
plistic and hopeful.
Folks that say this is a ‘dog eat dog’ world are
probably right. But I am not interested in living in
such a world, and I think I’ll just stick to my sim-
plistic naïveté for now and pretend most people are
good and well intentioned and can be trusted (ex-
cept those who can not—even if I’m naïve, I’ll still
try to learn from experience). It serves to make my
life a tad more pleasant, and the worst that could
happen is some dogs eat me.
Even as those dogs tear me to shreds and de-
vour my carcass, that carcass will spend its last,
painful minutes thankful for having enjoyed a re-
laxed and joyous life of not being a dog that eats
other dogs and thinks all the other dogs are out to
get it.
OK that was fun. Now: Happy Holidays and Mer-
ry Xmas and etc. etc. May you spend lots of good
times with your family and friends in the coming
month, and may you eat lots and lots of delicious
food (and no dogs)!
CORRECTION! Last issue we erroneously credited a a photo accom-
panying the article 'Surfing USA Iceland!'. It was taken by the lovely
Alísa Kalyanova. We apologise to her profusely!
This issue’s track selection was inspired by Sindri
Eldon’s raving review of the album it comes
from! And Sindri is right: ‘Nology’ is a wonderful,
wonderful album! Read Sindri’s review below,
and then go download the track they so gra-
ciously donated, ‘Souls Of Shanghai’, from www.
grapevine.is !
NOLO
Souls Of Shanghai
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Download at www.grapevine.is
Treading a curious line between meticulously
soundscaped and haphazardly simple, Nology is a
slightly daft adventure in post-modern musician-
ship, but its daftness certainly doesn’t prevent it
from carving some beautifully austere pop hooks.
‘Yorkshire’ encapsulates everything that’s still
bearable about indie condensed into one song,
and ‘When You’re Gone’ is pretty much the best
Icelandic song I’ve heard all year. It on/offs between
cocky guitar chugging and those marvellous mo-
ments that come only when musicians don’t give a
flying fuck how silly or cheap they’re being, they’re
just belting out a good tune. The lyrics make no
sense, the vocals aren’t very good and the synths
are about as cheesy as you can get, but these guys
really are on to something. Check this fucker out
and enjoy bathing in sweet, sunny apathy.
- SINdRI ELdON
NOLO
NOLOGY
facebook.com/noloonline
So good it’s hard to believe it’s Icelandic.
TRACK
OF THE ISSUE
Download at
grapevine.is
Our frequent collaborator and supporter, Hermann
Fannar Valgarðsson (or Hemmi as he was affection-
ately known to his many, many friends) tragically
passed away recently at the young age of 31.
Hemmi was an inspiring man, and we are grateful
for having gotten the chance to know and work with
him through some of his many exciting projects such
as Nýlenduvöruverzlun Hemma & Valda (which is
still going strong) and Atómstöðin/Skapalón (who
host and service www.grapevine.is).
Thank you, dear Hemmi. You will be missed.
A benefit for Hemmi's family featuring some
of Iceland's favourite musicians will be held in Ka-
plakriki stadium, in his hometown of Hafnarfjörður,
on December 20 (www.facebook.com/xmasoghem-
mi).