I left the pub after 11, a little before rúntur got started. I had wondered if Icelanders dress up for Halloween – either Reykjavik teens really top rave fashion, or the answer is “yes, on the closest weekend.” But I didn’t stay to find out more; I had a Golden Circle tour booked for 8 am pickup Saturday, and didn’t want to miss the bus. So I was in bed by midnight.
A slamming door woke me at 3 am. At 3:30, I got up and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. Then I tossed and turned for a long time. I thought to myself, I’ll just check the time, and if it’s after 4:30, I’ll get up. It was 5:15. So I got up, wrote up some notes, ate a big breakfast, and caught my bus promptly at 8 am. Read More
Broadly speaking, our assumptions are just generalizations of things we know to be true in specific instances. With every additional piece of knowledge, our assumptions become more reliable. Because actual experience sticks so much better than book learnin’ travel provides the double benefit of specific information in a format we will never forget.
For example:
Last night at the pub, I followed the “Toilet” sign directing me down the basement stairs. Read More
After years of yearning and months of planning, I am finally in Iceland. There is always a bit of cognitive dissonance in the last few hours before a big trip; it’s impossible to quite comprehend that this time tomorrow, you will be in a completely different place that so far only exists in your imagination. I am grateful in a way for the almost uniform sterility of airports. Their almost-the-same blandness worldwide creates a sort of purgatory that helps one make the transition from here to there.
It has been something like 15 years since I traveled to Europe, (even now, Iceland only sort of counts) and five years since my last real travel adventure. I am certainly rusty. I had forgotten how much longer everything takes when you don’t know what you’re doing. When traveling east means returning to the familiar, you don’t notice how much worse the jet lag is in that direction. Read More
A lot of things have irritated me this election cycle, but few get under my skin as much as “jobs creation” as an election issue. It wasn’t until this week, when Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ completely DIY album hit number one on iTunes in America, Germany, and probably a couple other places, too, that I put together the messages of “Thrift Shop” and “Jimmy Iovine” to see just what was eating me about the jobs creation.
Jobs creators: A spin-doctored term for the oppressed minority of rich white men upon whose backs the rest of us stand, ungrateful for the jobs they have given us with their very life’s blood
The term assumes that jobs are created out of thin air the same way that jobs creators’ wealth is created on paper. It denies the possibility of jobs growing organically out of the work that actually needs to be done to sustain our lives on this planet.
“Jobs creation” treats jobs like commercial products that must be endlessly regenerated to keep the system rolling, whether the outputs of those jobs are actually valuable or not – which I guess is an accurate depiction of the current system.
Value Creators
Like Macklemore, I prefer to make wise use of the commercial products and jobs we already have, rather than wastefully producing new ones without regard to their usefulness. Imagine if, instead of protecting the privileges of the tiny minority of jobs creators (who, let’s face it, haven’t served that purpose very well lately anyway) we as a society collectively said, “Fuck the jobs creators. Let’s find a system that allows musicians, sculptors, painters, writers, parents of small children – all the people whose creations sustain us – to make a living creating things of value instead of commercial products.”
Then, all the jobs currently held by value creators could be recycled to employ the folks who actually want them.
Our society doesn’t seem quite ready to ask the question, “What about the arts creators?” and we’re not very good at choosing collective responses to social issues. Until the day when proper funding of the arts becomes an election issue, I’m glad to see Macklemore proving it’s possible to DIY without the jobs creators.
I love Seattle, this small city that’s dark most of the year and supports far more than its fair share of amazing artists. The only thing I love as much as Seattle is leaving Seattle to visit new places. As the ticker to the left shows, I’ve finally pulled the trigger on an obsession with a new place that’s dark most of the year and supports far more than its fair share of amazing artists – Reykjavík.
I’m going to submerge myself in saga lore. I mean, I’m no Emily Lethbridge, but I think Skallagrim Kveldulfsson is more interesting than his son Egil (although if anyone deserves to have a beer named after them, it’s Egil Skallagrimsson) and if someone doesn’t make a big Hollywood action movie out of Njála soon, I’m going to have to do it myself. Seriously, just the scene where Skarphedin scatters Thrain’s teeth on the ice as he glides past would be worth the price of admission.
Read Egil’s Saga to understand why he deserves his own beer.
Oh, and of course there’s this little thing called Airwaves. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Over 420 bands playing all over Reykjavík for five days, plus 400 more unofficial, off-venue performances. And Sigur Rós is headlining. Acting in my role as music journalist – you have been reading my posts over on Three Imaginary Girls, right? – I set up interviews with a label owner, several indie-pop-folk musicians, and approximately half of the Reykjavík heavy metal scene.
One of the first musicians who agreed to interview with me is a young man by the name of Ásgeir Trausti; a classically trained guitarist whose dreamy folk-pop has drawn comparisons to Jeff Buckley. His debut album was released in Iceland only a couple of weeks ago and quickly sold out. You, dear reader, can find it online at IcelandMusic.com, which you are totally going to want to do after you watch this video.
Okay, so that was over 300 words and a video all leading up to this: Ásgeir Trausti and other wonderful Icelandic bands are playing Neumos on Friday, October 12 as part of a brilliant festival celebrating the parallel universes of two cities that are dark most of the year and support more than their fair share of artists – A Taste of Iceland in Seattle. Even though I get to go to Iceland in a couple of weeks, there is no way that I am going to miss this show where three Icelandic bands will premier new songs with lyrics written by local Seattle writers, and Redwood Plan will do the same with a writer from Iceland.
But wait, there’s more! A Taste of Iceland also involves an actual taste of Icelandic cuisine (no, not hákarl) at Staple and Fancy in Ballard. And oh, joy to me! an exhibit at the Nordic Heritage Museum that examines the relationship between the sagas and modern literature. Actually, the Nordic Heritage Museum has been having a bit of an Iceland-themed year, and a post to that effect is overdue…
What do you mean you haven’t been to the Nordic Heritage Museum yet? Go!
Finally, they are looking for a local blogger to be the official correspondent of the festival.
So let’s see. A Taste of Iceland in Seattle needs to find someone who is willing to immerse themselves in intensive research of the cultural offerings of Iceland. This person must quickly turn that into absorbing prose that will immediately make clear to the reader the undeniable awesomeness of Iceland. They need, say, someone with a day job as a technical writer, which requires translation of in-depth research into readily accessible descriptions. They need someone who is passionate enough about music and literature to stay up late at night blogging about their latest discoveries – like say, someone who routinely contributes to arts and culture web sites. And they need someone who loves good food – like, well, okay, everyone loves good food.
Say, I’ve got an idea… I could be the official correspondent for A Taste of Iceland in Seattle! Oh, pick me! Pick me!
