Category Archive Travel

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Iceland Airwaves by the Numbers

Iceland Airwaves 2012 poster

Uber-geek Souvenir

 

In science there is only physics. All the rest is stamp collecting. – Ernest Rutherford.

 

Maybe it’s because I used to be a stamp collector (molecular genetics lab tech), but I can’t resist the urge to measure things that don’t really need to be measured. Iceland Airwaves was a five-day MFA program in music that quite literally changed the way I hear music. When I came home, I put on my old CDs and sometimes I could barely recognize the once-familiar music – I just heard different things.

That should be enough. But no, useless data must follow.

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Chaology: A Post-Airwaves Lesson From the Reykjavik Art Museum

chaologyThe northern lights failed to create the proper cinematic effect after Sigur Rós’ concert, but the morning-after rain was a perfect visual for the movie version. I tried to write, but it was useless. Such a wide variety of music juxtaposed over such a short time had sparked more new ideas than I could process. My cup had run over so forcefully it toppled off the table and landed upside down on the floor. I had finally achieved the martial artist’s “empty cup,” the beginner’s mind. Read More

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Sigur Rós at Airwaves

crowd waiting for Sigur Ros concert

Waiting for Sigur Ros

On the final night of Airwaves 2012, Sigur Rós played their first home town show in years. The only venue in town big enough was the sports stadium in Laugardalur. My English friend and I arrived at the stadium about fifteen minutes before the doors were scheduled to open. The line ran the length of the building, and soon wrapped around out of site. Even so, someone pulled into an empty parking spot right in front of us. Thousands of people were going to this show, but most of them were walking. Read More

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Sunday Airwaves Sunday

Asgeir TraustiSunday at Airwaves 12

I was the first one up in my dorm room at KEX on Sunday morning, which means I was the only one to (barely) make it downstairs before they quit serving breakfast at 10:30. It was already hard to find a seat for KEX’s first show of the day, Ásgeir Trausti. I hung out after breakfast and tried to write. I hadn’t really written anything since Thursday morning, and some things were already blurry (I had completely forgotten the wedding celebration at the Of Monsters and Men show until I read it somewhere else). Read More