Einar Steinn Valgarðsson
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My blogs
Coming Up: The Reykjavik Blues Festival 2013
In his book A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut quotes his friend, the writer Albert Murray, as claiming that the blues may not be able to drive depression clear out of a house, but can drive it into the corners of any room where it’s being played. The Reykjavik Blues Festival will be celebrated from March 23. to March 28, sure to drive any depression to the furthest corner. Eh? What's that? Icelandic blues? Indeed. One of the greatest gifts America has given the world is the blues, and the torch is carried widely and proudly, as the feeling and need for expression is universal. The
Kjötborg: The Little Shop on the Corner
In the far eastern part of the west part of Reykjavík, the 'Vesturbær', on the corner of Ásvallagata and Blómvallagata, stands a little grocery store called Kjötborg. I myself grew up in the neighbourhood and have for a long time been a regular customer. The two brothers who run it have become sort of legends in their lifetime, as the store is one of the last bastions of small grocery stores in the city. They offer a warm and friendly personalized service, and the store has really become a kind of a community and social center of its own. For a small shop, it's also amazing to s
Coming up: The Reykjavik Folk Festival
Winter and snow may be upon us, and then some, but one can still have a cozy time for all that. One way is to cuddle under a warm rug and raise the heat to a considerable degree or you might choose to attend some of the events happening this month. Among them is the excellent Reykjavik Folk Festival, starting tonight, March 7th and lasting until Saturday, March 9th. This annual festival is now being held for the fourth time and features 12 modern folk artists, most of them locals, the cream of the crop. These artists are Árstíðir, Benni Hemm Hemm, Magnús og Jóhann, Ólöf Arnalds, Pétur Ben
Food & Fun
I'd just like to remind everybody about the Food & Fun festival, starting today and lasting until March third, where the world´s most acclaimed chefs collaborate with Reykjavik's finest restaurants. Each chef is assigned to one of the participating restaurants, where they prepare a special menu from natural Icelandic ingredients and products. The restaurants will all be presented with the menus for a whole week. There’s also a chef competition, on the last day of the festival. Here the chefs compete in making three courses, made solely out of Icelandic ingredients. If you enjoy ha
Sonar Reykjavik Review: Saturday
A personal review of Sonar Reykjavik 2013. Photo courtesy of Katrín Sif. After a great night of partying the earlier day at the Sonar festival, I returned to Harpa for the second installment the following day. These are the bands I got around to see and my thoughts: Samaris Samaris, consisting of Singer Jófríður Árnadóttir, clarinet player Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir and electronic musician Þórður Kári Stefánsson delivered a great set. The atmosphere was chilled out and the electronic instrument created a nice bass/beat backbone to the melodies of the clarinet. The music, which has
Sonar Reykjavik Review: Friday
A personal review of Sonar Reykjavik 2013. Photo courtesy of Katrín Sif. Sonar Reykjavik 2013 The international Sonar festival was held for the first time in Reykjavik this year. I got a press pass and am happy to write about my experience of the festival where I had altogether a really great time, and those bands I got around to see. Internationally, the festival is mainly focused on electronic music and interesting homegrown talent in the city where it's celebrated. Mashups with other artistic forms are also common, though the Reykjavik festival solely focused on music. The festival was
A few thoughts on Icesave, or: Well, There It is
The other day, Iceland won the EFTA-courtcase as regards Icesave. As I know that this is a heated issue for many, and also that people may be wondering about the case, I feel I should sum up the result of the case, as far as I've been able to tell, and some of my own thoughts on the matter. The result seems to be like this: EFTA does not find the Icelandic government accountable. The British and Dutch governments cover the minimum insurance towards the depositors in their respective countries and debts beyond that amount will be paid from the Landsbanki bankruptcy estate, which I'
Cool music, books and films in January – Things to check out.
Perhaps not as cool as this guy, but then again, what is? 1) The French Film Festival, with nine films from January 11 to January 24, hosted by Græna ljósið (The Green Light) and shown in Háskólabíó cinema. Of these I have already seen two excellent ones, L’Illusioniste by Sylvain Chomet and Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud. Other films shown at the festival are De Roille et D'os, Amour, Adieu Berthe, Un Poison Violent, Les Barons, La Famillie Wolberg and Nénette. The Green Light Page can be found here, though info in English is lacking as of this being w
Of Þorrablót, troll friendship and a starry night with Northern Lights
One thing to look forward to in January is the Þorrablót. This is a mid winter festival (traditionally the month of Thorri is the fourth winter month, from mid-January to mid-February) when many Icelanders get together to eat traditional food, what many other people consider simply disgusting food. Much of it is cured with lactic acid. We have Hrútspungar (soured rams testicles, boiled and cured in lactic acid), svið (boiled sheep heads, sometimes cured in lactic acid), hákarl (fermented shark), sviðasulta (sheep’s loins, made from svið and sometimes cured in lactic acid), hangikjöt (smoked
We'll take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne
Picture by Iurie Belegurchi. For more of his awesome pictures, visit his page. Gleðilegan þrettánda, góðir hálsar! /Happy Thirtheenth, good throats! I do love how some Icelandic phrases make hardly any sense when translated directly, or none at all. For those that may not know the the Thirtheenth, Icelanders celebrate the 13th and last day of Christmas on January 6th and there's lots of fireworks, bonfires, dancing and fun stuff going on, similar to New Year’s Eve. This day was formerly held to be the birthday of Jesus, and the Armeninan Church indeed still holds it to be so. As with N
Photos by me
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