Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.11.2015, Síða 2

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2011
Milkywhale are a new electronic pop duo
who recently set Iceland Airwaves 2015
alight with five fabulously fun shows. So
catchy were the tracks of Árni “Plúseinn”
Hlöðversson (you might know him from
such bands as FM Belfast, Hairdoctor
and Blazing Inferno) and so explosively
joyful were the performances of singer
Melkorka Sigríður Magnúsdóttir, that
several of Grapevine’s festival review
team immediately formed a fandom
(#Hvalmjólkurmennirnir) and trailed
around town watching each and every
gig they played.
So, they fully deserve to be our post-
Airwaves featured track. Also, it’s a damn
good track. For fun, check out this “Best
Of Milkywhale Fawning 2015” collection
we assembled from the many glowing
words our resident fanboys wrote about
them.
“Melkorka is an inspired, somewhat
divine individual who has decided to use
her time on earth to plant an immovable
smile on the faces of every human be-
ing possible. She jumps, writhes, spins,
stamps, pumps her hips, reaches for
the crowd’s faces, throws herself to the
ground, stretches for the sky, pops her
shoulders, and is a generally unstoppable
maelstrom of movement. The energy that
pours from her isn’t that kind of “let me
entertain you” professional-but-practiced
stagey dancer feeling, but rather a chan-
nelling of a deep love for life, dance,
music and movement. I guarantee that
seeing Milkywhale is the most fun you’ll
have with any kind of whale during your
stay in Iceland. Of all the things we’ve
learned watching and reporting on the
sightings of “the glamorous whale” (their
lyrics), we have one conclusion: In our ex-
pert, scientific opinion, Milkywhale basi-
cally won Airwaves.”
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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2015
Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík
www.grapevine.is
grapevine@grapevine.is
Published by Fröken ehf.
www.froken.is
Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry As-
sociation
www.saf.is
Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies.
Editor In Chief:
Haukur S Magnússon / haukur@grapevine.is
Journalist & Travel editor:
John Rogers / john@grapevine.is
Journalist & Listings editor
Gabríel Benjamin / gabriel@grapevine.is
Food Editor:
Ragnar Egilsson / ragnar@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:
Shruthi Basappa
Joe Shooman
Anna Manning
Davíð Roach
Haukur Már Helgason
Björn Teitsson
Mr. uhhhhhhhhhhh
Grayson Del Faro
Nathan Hall
Óli Dóri
RX Beckett
Paul Fontaine
Editorial Interns:
Alexander de Ridder / alexander@grapevine.is
Rebecca Conway / rebecca@grapevine.is
Art Director:
Fashionably Laid
Design:
Scooby Don't
Contributing Photographers:
Art Bicnick
Anna Domnick
Hörður Sveinsson
Sales Director:
Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / adalsteinn@grape-
vine.is
Helgi Þór Harðarson / helgi@grapevine.is
Distribution manager:
distribution@grapevine.is
Proofreader:
Mark Asch
releases:
listings@grapevine.is
Submission 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 writ-
ten permission of the publishers. The Reykjavík
Grapevine is distributed around Reykjavík,
Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður, Borgarnes,
Keflavík, 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’).
On the cover:
Birgitta Jónsdóttir,
Ásta Helgadóttir,
Helgi Hrafn
Gunnarsson
Photographer:
Hörður Sveinsson -
hordursveinsson.com
Cover Concept
Hrefna Sigurðardóttir
& Sveinbjörn Pálsson
Cover Design
Sveinbjörn Pálsson
Don’t Get Too Excited, It’s Only Paper
One morning this fall, I woke up on a couch
and it was strange. September.
The news, I could no longer read them.
Here is an anecdote:
I ventured inside that Alþingi building the
other day. I believe it was a Tuesday. The time
was 3pm. The weather was mostly OK.
I was there to help this tall wunderkind,
the redhead superstar photographer man, that
integral part of this magazine since always
and beyond. His name is Hörður Sveinsson.
Hörður Sveinsson was there to document
the three Pirate MPs (they are named Ásta,
Helgi and Birgitta) for this magazine’s cover.
Flip the page for a minute. It’s a nice shot,
right? Kind of blurry. But that’s intentional.
Trust me, we use some very sophisticated,
state of the art equipment to create photo-
graphs for this magazine.
Anyway, I was there to provide assistance
and moral support, in case the Pirates turned
out to be mean assholes, or if—I don’t know—
we’d get lost in the hallway or something. Also
to carry stuff. That’s where I’m a Viking!
What a fun experience that was, being in-
side the Alþingi building!
The first person I met was the MP named
Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir. She is a card-
carrying member of the Independence Party.
Traditionally, that party is Iceland’s Official
Party For Winners. I have often wondered
what it would feel like to be an accredited
member of a party for winners. I imagine it
must feel great. But, I have never come close to
trying to join. I am afraid they would see right
through me, that they would make fun of me,
that it would be a humiliating experience.
The MP Hanna Birna did not come off
as much of a winner as we briefly passed one
another in that corner of the Alþingi build-
ing’s hallway where you’re supposed to hang
your coat. She kind of scowled at me. We have
never met, it was weird. The look she gave me
was that special mix of Worried, Annoyed and
Angry that the Assistant Principals, bus driv-
ers and school janitors have down to a science.
I wondered if I had done something to anger
her. Whether she was maybe angry that a kind
of messy guy such as myself was in Her House.
Then I remembered that The MP Hanna
Birna was once The Minister Hanna Birna,
which is a title that better suits a Winner. I
now believe she must always feel sad about the
ill fortune of having to revert to being The MP
after getting a taste of being The Minister—that
this was the reason why she looked angry.
Angry people often seem sad, and vice
versa, I have learned.
But this was an aside. Back to the anec-
dote:
Hörður Sveinsson and I were greeted by
The Building Guards once we made it inside of
the Alþingi building. These Guards are tasked
with defending our valuable MPs and Min-
isters, and they take that job seriously. They
are good people, but they maybe felt a sense of
unease about Hörður Sveinsson and I. I can’t
blame them for doing their job, part of which
I imagine must entail standing around and be-
ing suspicious.
The Pirate MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir came
and met us. She has long, dark hair. She was
wearing the clothes she is wearing on the
cover image (flip the page again if you don’t
remember what she looks like there). She was
also wearing a very big smile. And she laughed
a lot.
I like it when people smile and laugh. I
think that is a nice way to welcome strangers.
I wondered why Birgitta was being so nice.
I thought: We have never met. Is she one
of those people who always likes to smile and
laugh? Or is she smiling and laughing because
she considers us to be teammates? Are we
teammates? I do not remember joining any
team. I am not interested in pursuing team
membership. I admit that I sometimes fan-
tasize about being in a successful team, but
those dreams are burnt down by my worries
that such a team would reject me.
I thought some more: Are we maybe team-
mates because we are the kind of people who
do not want to be in teams? Does everyone
who never joined any team get automatically
enlisted in a team that’s made up of people
who don’t like the idea of teams?
Birgitta is a member of a political party
that I think might emphasize that they are
“not a team.” Does this make that my politi-
cal party? Is she smiling because she wants
to trick me into joining her no-team political
party?
No dice, Birgitta. I like your smiles and I
will smile back, because I like smiling and also
because it is The Right Thing To Do. But a no-
team team is still a team.
Wait, this wasn’t the anecdote. OK I gotta
hurry. I’m running outta space. Here goes:
We were looking for a space to shoot pho-
tos. Birgitta suggested we try doing it in the
Alþingi building’s basement sauna room (they
have a sauna room? WTF!?!). Birgitta walked
us down to the basement. It smelled like a
swimming pool. That amused me. I looked at
my phone. I was a little behind Birgitta and
Hörður, because I was texting, so the sauna
door shut in my face. I finished texting. It was
an important work text. I am not rude.
One of The Building Guards came run-
ning. He was the younger one of the two. He
looked very anxious, and worried. He told me
I was not supposed to be down there. I said I
was sorry. I motioned to the sauna room, to
indicate that I was not alone in the swimming
pool basement, and told him we were there to
create photographs. He said that photography
was banned everywhere in the house, except
for two places that I knew Hörður did not
want to photograph in, because he has done it
before and they are boring places.
I was worried. Hörður Sveinsson came
out, and some Pirate MPs. The Building Guard
approached Birgitta. He told her that she was
not supposed to bring anyone down there. She
smiled and waved her hand and said, fine OK.
We went upstairs, to The Pirate Office. We
were going to photograph in there. The Build-
ing Guard followed. He approached Birgitta
again, and told her that there was to be abso-
lutely no photography in The Pirate Office. He
said this as Hörður Sveinsson and I carried so-
phisticated, bulky photography equipment to
The Pirate Office. The Building Guard Looked
worried. He asserted The Rules.
Birgitta told him, of course we can pho-
tograph in The Pirate Office, and waved him
away.
I might not want to join Birgitta’s no team
team. I don’t like teams (also their quota sys-
tem policy is stupid). But I still think she is
kind of a badass. A Smiley Badass, the best
kind of badass.
Alright that was the anecdote.
Editorial: Haukur S. Magnússon
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