Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Page 70

62 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2018
Frakkastígur 16, Melhagi 22, Fákafen 11, Hlemmur Mathöll,
braudogco@braudogco.is
Freddi is a beloved Reykjavík arcade that
offers everything from old school pinball
to new school GTA. If you’ve never heard
of it, you’re probably someone who hates
fun or perhaps a tourist. Anyway, the
cherished institution recently moved
from its Ingólfsstræti locale to an un-
derground spot on Bankastræti opposite
the punk museum. The opening was
fantastic and the future looked bright.
Until…
To complete their new-year-new-me,
Freddi decorated the exterior with fancy
signs of video game characters like Pac
Man and Mario. It was talented, bril-
liant, incredible, amazing, show-stop-
ping, spectacular, never the same, totally
unique, completely not ever been done
before—you get the picture.
Apparently, one very bad samaritan
agreed and in the dead of their opening
night, stole the Donkey Kong sign. The
owners of Freddi immediately posted a
Facebook status, pleading for the return
of their gorgeous gorilla, even offering
a no-questions-asked consequence-
free policy. Fans from all over furiously
shared the status, demanding the culprit
turn themselves in.
Close, but no cigar
But despite widespread anger all over
Reykjavík, the thief stayed silent, pre-
sumably keeping the booty as a keep-
sake in their shitty underground studio.
Freddi started a silent manhunt, infil-
trating groups they suspected but no
one talked. Barrels were thrown. Lives
were lost—not real ones, just in the video
games that patrons played while crying.
Sunna Shabnam Halldórudóttir, the
manager of Freddi, gave this statement
to the Grapevine. “Besides sending out
the word and doing a post there was very
little I could do,” she says. “It's not like the
Stjórnarráð or the cops were going to let
me access the cameras around. I mean
the first time a sign was stolen from us it
was Reykjavík City at the behest of more
‘upscale’ shops because our sign wasn't
up to ‘their standards’.” Shots fired.
So if you’re at an afterparty and you
see our friend Donkey Kong chilling next
to a bong, punch whoever lives there,
grab the sign, and steal all their money.
That said, we assume the sign will resur-
face in a few years when the perpetrator
gets to their direct amends step of their
inevitable AA experience.
CITY SHOT by Art Bicnick
WAR OF THE NERDS
Bowzer’s Final
Revenge
Isabella Stewart Gardner has nothing on Freddi
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo:
Art Bicnick
Come back to us Donkey Kong...
Close, sesame!
WELL, YOU ASKED
Here Goes...
Gay stuff and deaf stuff
and existential stuff
Words: Juliana Iluminata Wilczynski

Where is the best place to be flamboy-
antly gay in Reykjavík?
You can, of course, be flamboyantly gay
anywhere in Reykjavík. But there are two
particularly perfect spots. The first is
Kíkí Bar, which is the only queer night-
club in town. Grapevine voted it as the
best bar to dance at in 2016, and they’re
guaranteed to play a song that you 'll
know every lyric to. Kíkí is where Iceland-
ers feel comfortable releasing all of their
inhibitions. Another option is just to go
to a Páll Óskar concert. Don’t forget your
sequin booty shorts.
Is there an Iceland deaf club or society?
There is a tour company called Deaf Ice-
land Tours that provides tours in sign
language, with guides and the bus driv-
ers fluent in sign language. The Icelandic
Association of the Deaf was founded in
1960, and hosts a regular Deaf Club. The
Association and Deaf Club are located in
downtown Reykjavík at Þverholt 14 and
they are open from 9:00 to 16:00, and host
a social coffee get together on Fridays
from 14:00 - 16:00.
Does Iceland exist?
To be honest, I’m not even sure myself.
Keflavík just looks like a spaceship, and
everytime I land in Iceland, I’m convinced
that the Flybus is just a way for the gov-
ernment to place us into the Icelandic
Matrix. Right now, I’m probably in Green-
land, in a cryogenic chamber, but really
I’m in the Matrix. If you see some kind of
elf peeking out from behind a lava rock,
or a troll reading a newspaper on Strætó,
don’t be alarmed, it just means that all of
the bitcoin mining is causing the servers
to malfunction.

Send your unsolvable (UNTIL NOW)
problems to editor@grapevine.is