Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2017, Qupperneq 72

If multitasking were a sport, night owl
Ólafur Sverrir Traustason would be the
undisputed champion. There are few
people who can juggle four jobs and still
maintain a state of almost constant calm-
ness like this fashionable 27-year-old pe-
rennially clad in sharp, tailored suits.
“At the moment I divide my time
between a record store, Monday Jazz
nights at Húrra, late evening at Bíó
Paradís and Dj’ing during the week-
end,” Óli tells me. While he’s been do-
ing this for years, he has no intention
to stop until he can go back to study-
ing music full time. Although his dan-
dy appearance might look out of place
against the dirty streets of late-night
Reykjavík, he also fits in just perfectly
with the capital’s quirky atmosphere.
“To be honest it’s not that wild down-
town,” he says, unimpressed. “I mean, I
only organise jazz nights at Húrra now,
but even when I was working full time
on weekends I never had a problem with
customers.” Even if he had gotten into a
fight, I’m sure that suit of his wouldn’t
have wrinkled one bit. Is he really im-
plying that working night shifts at a bar
does not expose him to weird characters?
“That’s what I’m saying,” he ex-
claims. “To be honest, my nights at Bíó
Paradís turned out to be more eclectic
than Húrra. This homeless guy used
to come in all the time to just sit and
hang out but once we found out he had
been talking to customers inside one
of the auditoria—something he wasn’t
allowed to do. So I went looking for
him everywhere,” he explains. “In the
end I found him masturbating in front
of a projector and a computer, with
25 tabs of porn open in front of him.”
“Man, that was odd,” Óli chuckles se-
raphically, before throwing his record
bag on his shoulder, ready for his next
adventure under the midnight sun.
HOUR OF THE WOLF
CITY SHOT
The Dandiest
Workaholic
Of Reykjavík
Nightlife
Words:
Alice Demurtas
Photos:
Art Bicnick
By Art Bicnick
DON’T ASK NANNA...
...About Your
Frenemy
Words: Nanna Árnadóttir
Hi Nanna,
Serious question here, sorry. I have this
friend, we used to be very close when we
were teenagers. Like sisters almost. But
when I left our small town and moved to
Reykjavík for university we kind of grew
apart. I find we have less and less in com-
mon and when she visits me all she wants
to do is party and get drunk but I got
bored of that years ago. When she visits,
she never pays for anything, she leaves
everything really messy and never helps.
Last week she said she wanted to work in
Reykjavík over the summer and could we
be roommates? I do NOT want to be her
roommate. I don’t want her at my place,
in my space (it’s basically just a room,
not even a real flat).
What do I do? I don’t really want to be
her friend anymore.
Fed Up Frenemy
Hi Fed Up Frenemy,
There are a number of ways to alien-
ate people. You could watch ‘House of
Cards’ on Netflix without them, even
after you promised you’d wait until
they got home, then tell them all the
spoilers. You could fuck her dad, I bet
that’d piss her off.
Or you could just ghost her. That’s
what I’d do. Make up excuses, tell her
your landlord won’t let you sublet and
regularly drops in to say hi. You tell her
you’re busy when she makes plans, tell
her you can’t go out and do XYZ until
eventually, she gets the fucking hint.
And if she doesn’t and she con-
fronts you to say, “Hey, what’s the deal,
why aren’t you letting me take advan-
tage of you under the guise of friend-
ship anymore?”, you can tell her you’ve
just been super busy, why not pencil in
brunch? Then cancel that brunch and
continue ghosting her until she just
gets bored and gives up.
Good luck,
Nanna
Don't email: nanna@grapevine.is
Don't tweet at: @NannaArnadottir
West-Iceland
70 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2017