ByGD
Solstafir at Barboza in Seattle December 2014
Yesterday I saw Solstafir at El Corazon. It was Mother’s Day, and I’m sure I’ll do some kind of post about that later. For once, I didn’t spend half the show trying to get usable photos and I didn’t run a narrative in my head drafting the review I would write in the morning. I just watched the show. Read More
ByGD
On my last day of my first trip to Iceland, I wandered the Reykjavik Art Museum. I had already noticed an Icelandic tendency to treat words as both ideas and art (a recording studio with text wallpaper, decoupaged newspapers ornamenting hostel bathroom stalls). But this temporary exhibit, in which a foreign artist (I’m sorry I’ve lost his name – someone please fill me in) had scribbled messages in black marker all over the gallery walls. I was sad to be leaving Iceland, and the quirky designs cheered me up. The messages themselves felt like answers to an unspoken question.
ByGD
Cats of Reykjavik
Can we talk about Iceland for a minute?
My obsession with all things Icelandic is no secret, and over the course of a three trips to the country I have developed a few intense loyalties. The KEX Hostel feels like home and I must soak at Laugardalslaug at least once each trip, even though I can’t really swim. Read More
ByGD
Björk’s new album is deservedly getting a lot of attention, but there is another, much quieter release from an Icelandic artist – literally quieter. It’s not an album, it’s a poetry chapbook. Wait! Don’t go! I know what it sounds like. It sounds like photocopied, stapled pages sold out of a backpack on the sidewalk by attractive yet poorly groomed, self-absorbed youths. If you buy a copy (out of an impulse to support the arts, and greatness might appear anywhere, even in a homeless kid; or you want to help the homeless; or simply because you’re charmed by the poet’s combination of sincerity and homemade tattoos) inside the pages you will find verses without rhyme or meter or quite possibly, meaning. I know. That’s usually what it means. But I’m talking about Sjón here. Read More
