Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.04.2012, Blaðsíða 2

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 4 — 2012
Editorial | Anna Andersen
VOLCANOES Will they kill us all dead forever? FASHION What stood out at RFF?
Hallgrímur Helgason: Iceland was hit by tsunami of tourism and media attentionLITERATURE
GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! Some really weird ones! TRAVEL We rock out in remote places!
Is Iceland's
housing market
out of control?!?
P. 20
In post-collapse Iceland, mortgages are hard to come by, and a growing number of people
are turning to the rental market. Yet, with such increased demand, finding apartments to
rent is only getting more difficult, with many would-be tenants claiming it is taking them
MONTHS to find an apartment. Grapevine explores.
Issue 4 • 2012 • April 13 - May 3
Cover by:
Hristbjörnsson
Our treat for you this issue is “Distance” by Steve
Sampling. Influenced by disco and considered house
friendly, Steve Sampling’s “Distance” features vocals
by Bragi Eiríkur.
With over ten years of experience in producing
and remixing and four previously released albums,
Steve Sampling is no newbie to the scene. This is
his second release on Möller Records and there are
certainly more to come. The song adds to his history
of soulful melodic tunes that often cross genres from
hip hop to house to break beat and dub step.
So get your free download at www.grapevine.is and
if you like what you hear you can get the whole al-
bum at www.mollerrecords.com. More about Steve:
www.facebook.com/stevesampling
Steve Sampling feat. Bragi Eiríkur –
“Distance”
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Download the FREE track at www.grapevine.is
TRACK OF
THE ISSUE
Download your
free track at
grapevine.is
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 in ChiEf:
Haukur S Magnússon / haukur@grapevine.is
Managing Editor:
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:
James Ashworth
B.R. Neil
Mikael Lind
Bob Cluness
Birkir Fjalar Viðarsson
Clyde Bradford
Laura Studarus
Erla Björk Baldursdottir
Valur Gunnarsson
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson
Egill Helgason
Rebecca Louder
Ragnheiður Axel
Ragnar Egilsson
Paul Fontaine
Marc Vincenz
Editorial intErns:
Lynn Klein / lynn@grapevine.is
Melanie Franz / melanie@grapevine.is
Sarah Pepin / sarah@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
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’).
Comic | Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
Whenever we share a photo of the view from our
offices on Facebook, there’s always that person
who points out that our view is rather boring
and ordinary. But really there’s a lot to see. For
instance, we overlook Bæjarins Bestu—a hot dog
stand arguably selling the town’s best hot dogs.
There’s almost always a queue and we like to mon-
itor its guests closely. “Yep, there’s Steingrímur J.
Sigfússon eating another hot dog…” No, he’s not
really one of the more avid hot dog eaters.
Looking past the hot dog stand there’s a large
parking lot with two hundred spaces. In fact,
Reykjavík has a surprisingly large number of park-
ing spaces. Hjálmar Sveinsson, a member of Reyk-
javík’s Environment and Transportation Commit-
tee, wrote last year that there were between 700
and 800 parking spots per thousand jobs in down-
town Reykjavík, one of the largest ratios in the
world. We also have a lot of cars (more about this
on page 10).
Finally, past that parking lot we have a small
view of the harbour. Our resident designer not
only monitors people eating hot dogs, he also mon-
itors the ships in the harbour and keeps us abreast
of any exciting developments. “See that ship, it’s
called Sóléy. It used to be a freighter, but it ran
aground. The insurance company couldn’t get it
loose to f loat so this man came along and said, ‘if I
can get it loose can I keep it,’ and they said, ‘fine.’
And he came and he sawed it in two and pulled it
to harbour where he put it back together again and
from this ship he made an empire of selling sand,
which he pumped from the sea. He’s now dead.
But his company Björgun, which means rescue, is
still around.”
We don’t see much of Esja anymore, as Har-
pa—our conference centre and concert hall—
largely obstructs it. It’s been almost one year since
we featured it on the cover of this publication. The
Financial Times recently called it a symbol of our
recovery (pages 12 and 14). Perhaps the author was
onto something; Harpa happens to feature in a
number of articles this issue—being the venue of
EVE FanFest (page 16) and The Reykjavík Fashion
Festival (page 28), as well as hosting a number of
concerts, which you can read about in our listings
pull-out inside.
Enjoy your stay in Reykjavík! And don’t be shy
about those hot dogs… we promise not to tell. If hot
dogs aren’t your thing, though, our food critic just
adored the Indian restaurant Gandhi (page 31).
Anna’s 5th Editorial
Looking Out The Window
This photo was taken last year when Grímsvötn erupted. Will Katla erupt this year? Who knows!
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Hot spring steam baths
Sauna
Geothermal baths
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