Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Side 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 12 — 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
+354 40 3610
PublishEr:
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson / hilmar@grapevine.is
+354 540 3601 / publisher@grapevine.is
contributing WritErs:
Alda Kravec
Malcolm Kenneth Fraser
Álfrún Gísladóttir
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson
Marc Vincenz
Egill Helgason
Bob Cluness
Paul Fontaine
Kristinn Már Ársælsson
Sema Erla Serdar
Jón Gnarr
Magnús Sveinn Helgason
Joe Shooman
Edward Hancox
Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Richard P. Foley
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
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
TRAVEL
We journey to
Landmannalaugar and
Þórsmörk
We’ve got a
trash problem
FASHION
A peek at Reykjavík
Runway
LITERATURE
Einar Már and his new
book Bankastræti Núll
SEX
In the underground
REYKJAVÍK
IN THE ISSUE Issue 12 • 2011 • August 12 - August 25 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE!+
FULL SCHEDULE INSIDE
Comedy, music and social commentary are seldom
strangers to each other. Randy Neuman often blended
the three, as have countless punk rock bands. Comedian
and musician Steindi Jr. has now done the same with this
track, ‘Djamm í kvöld’ (Party Tonight).
The song follows an ordinary guy who “drinks four
light beers, and then goes straight back home in a taxi,”
and then disappears for a month as he careens into an
alcoholic tailspin. This human disaster is driven ever-
onwards towards self-destruction due to his unrelenting
need to go clubbing and partying “tomorrow and the
next day and the next day and the next.”
The best part of the song, though, is the delivery. The
track is a fairly infectious dance groove, replete with a
solid beat, ear worming bass line and washes of strings
that don't overwhelm. Steindi Jr's rap delivery is confi-
dent, clear and assured, which might explain why you
can often see people unironically dancing to this track in
clubs, perhaps oblivious to the song's statement on our
fair country's famed love affair with drinking to excess.
Or maybe because of it, who knows?
In any event, you can download this track from our
website, www.grapevine.is for free, or head on down
to a music store near you and buy Steindi Jr's CD, Án
djóks samt djók (Not kidding but still kidding) and listen
to what else he has to offer. As a rising star in Iceland's
comedy world, it definitely helps that he also happens to
be a competent musician.
Djamm í kvöld
Steindi Jr. (featuring Ásgeir Orri)
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Download at www.grapevine.is
TRACK
OF THE ISSUE
Download at
grapevine.is
Anna’s 2nd Editorial
On the cover:
Útlaginn (the Outlaw)
by Einar Jónsson
Photo:
Hrafnkell Sigurðsson
www.hrafnkellsigurdsson.com
Who Are Our Übermenschen?
It wasn’t until two weeks ago when we decided to
print a walking tour of some of Einar Jónsson’s
statues that I started to pay attention to the various
statues around town. And since then I’ve noticed
people—well, tourists—noticing them, taking
photos of them and taking their photos with them.
It’s rather curious to think about people’s albums
with photos of these statues and what it is about
them that attract tourists.
I came across an interview on NPR in which
Jón Gnarr suggests that the city build the ultimate
tourist statue: “We should have this huge statue
of Björk at the harbour like the Statue of Liberty”
he told NPR, “and instead of a torch she would
be having a microphone and she would shout out
some information about Reykjavík in three dif-
ferent languages and she would be revolving, you
know? And also there would be lights. Her eyes
would shoot lights on interesting tourist spots in
Reykjavík.”
It sounds incredibly outlandish, but then there
are some pretty outlandish things (stuffed polar
bears on Laugavegur) that attract tourists. How-
ever, the statues in Reykjavík, which often attract
a superficial glance or a photo from tourists, are
really worth a closer look. They say a lot about a
place—its history and its culture. Representing our
Viking inheritance, for instance, there are Ingólfur
Arnarson and Leifur Eiriksson. Icelanders often
consider themselves to be like these brave, heroic
and testosterone-bulging males—an attitude that
led to the ‘outvasion’ and the financial collapse.
Then there are our Independence heroes, Jón
Sigurðsson and Jónas Hallgrímsson, who appear
brave and heroic as statues, but were nothing like
the brave Vikings. “It is often said that the pen was
his weapon,” Egill Helgason wrote about Jón Sig-
urðsson in The Grapevine a few issues ago. And
of course Jónas Hallgrímsson is perhaps one of
the few historic Icelanders past Viking age to die
a heroic death—he fell down stairs in a drunken
stupor, broke his leg and died of complications.
Perhaps the cognitive dissonance between
this ingrained idea of Viking heroism and his-
torical fact of non-heroism is partly to blame for
widespread dysfunction in the Icelandic society.
Even Chuck Palahniuk could not have dreamt up
a society in which 10% of all living males over the
age of 15 have been admitted for inpatient alcohol
treatment. And what about the women? And
where are their statues?
We should pay more attention to the statues
around us, as they really say more about us than
the cursory glance suggests. And perhaps Jón
Gnarr’s giant Björk tourist statue is not such an
outlandish idea. It’s arguably a pretty authentic
representation of what we are today… Now I en-
courage everyone to go explore Reykjavík’s statues,
get to know them, and don’t return home with
JUST another photo of a statue in Reykjavík.