Iceland review - 2016, Page 12

10 ICELAND REVIEW
REYKJAVÍK’S NEW SON
Now a firmly adopted son of Reykjavík, John Grant has released his third album Grey
Tickles, Black Pressure. If there was any doubt about how well he has adjusted, John
Grant’s spectacular shows with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at Iceland Airwaves
in November showed just how much he is at home in Iceland.
Grey Tickles, which refers to the Icelandic term for ‘midlife crisis,’ grái fiðringur, is
an album full of humor, see ‘Snug Slacks,’ but it’s in the second half that John really
hits his stride. ‘Global Warming’ is stirring, the mock disco of ‘Disappointing’ has a
stomping chorus, and the intriguing ‘No More Tangles’ features verses culled from
shampoo bottles. This is a wondrous, intelligent album. Reykjavík should be proud to
call John a local. BY EDWARD HANCOX.
BRANDED BY THEIR NATION
Documentary The Situation Girls (Stúlkurnar á Kleppjárnsreykjum), directed by Alma
Ómarsdóttir, sheds light on a dark chapter in Iceland’s history. The title refers to what
was known as ‘the situation,’ a term used to define relations between Icelandic girls
and women and the British and US soldiers who occupied Iceland during World War
II. The film describes how the authorities spied on girls who were seen in the com-
pany of these soldiers, interrogated them and punished them by forcefully removing
them from their parents and placing them on farms, or in an asylum in the country-
side. The effort was supported by most respected officials. A powerful testimony to
how society unjustly branded girls as young as 12 as prostitutes, accusing them of
carrying what officials saw as a contagious disease which threatened the purity of their
nation. BY VALA HAFSTAÐ.
A PIG AND A PONY
Icelandic Animals/Íslensku dýrin is a new bilingual children’s book by Huginn Þór
Grétarsson and Katarzyna Kopec . It introduces children to the names of almost all
animals roaming in and around Iceland. There are seals, swans, horses and hens, cod
and cows. Then you have the razorbill, guillemot, centipede, sand lance and saithe,
all happily mingling together here in fine drawings, with Icelandic mountains and the
bottom of the sea in the background (though not at the same time). My one-and-a-
half-year-old granddaughter, Alba, liked the hens and the Icelandic sheepdog with its
special tail the most. The colorful book is printed on thick paperboard, to survive the
onslaught of small fingers for months to come. BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.
REVIEWS
Our critics take a look at three recent Icelandic releases: Alma Ómarsdóttir’s debut full-length docu-
mentary The Situation Girls, bilingual children’s book Icelandic Animals/Íslensku dýrin by Huginn Þór
Grétarsson and Katarzyna Kopec and John Grant’s new album Grey Tickles, Black Pressure.
CULTURAL CURIOSITIES