A new video featuring Icelandic and affiliated musicians on the power of collaboration:
Twenty Years Ago on FITK
The Reykjavík Grapevine is broke. We need money. Yesterday we had to inform our staff journalists, Iryna, Ish (pictured holding our latest Best of Reykjavík magazine at our annual Best of Reykjavík Award ceremony) and Jói (who couldn’t attend the ceremony, and thus isn’t pictured) that we won’t be able to afford their work unless our fortunes change. This was incredibly difficult and sad to do, because we are a small, tight-knit team who do this job out of love. It has been our purpose to bring journalism and cultural coverage of Iceland to our readers for almost 24 years, and while business has always been difficult, it has become ever more so in the past few years, making it harder to fulfill our purpose. Hell, we’re one of the last — if not the last — cultural publication still in print in Iceland, a country with a single daily newspaper left.I had followed RG for years, my presence in Iceland was even acknowledged a couple of times in 2006! During the early Iceland Airwaves they published a paper edition every day of the festival. As the only English-language pper in Reykjavík they had plenty of advertising. During the Covid-19 epidemic, The Reykjavík Grapevine was a beacon, shining light on Iceland’s struggles with the pandemic, led by its intrepid editor Valur Grettisson, his dog Polly, supplemented by the capable and personable intern Poppy Askham. Their twice-weekly video forays covering a country in lockdown were both informative and entertaining—so much so that I even sent them some money! After Covid lessened its grip this publishing enterprise got new owners who wanted to “take it in a new direction.” They weren’t obvious changes, but its tone changed. Instead of Poppy or Valur (and his adorable dog) celebrating Iceland’s beauty and attractions, we got snarky podcasts from the new editor and his cronies.
Twenty Years Ago on FITK
Móðir, kona, meyja is a tender, reflective memoir that succeeds most where it honors duration: the slow accrual of familiarity, care, and asymmetry that defines many online-to-offline friendships. The piece’s greatest strength is its emotional decency. You are consistently attentive to K as a full human being rather than a symbol or muse, and the essay never tips into self-dramatization. The closing metaphor of parallel stars is quietly earned and thematically apt.But it still insisted on trying to shape it into something more rigid than what this gentle meeting was:
That said, the essay could gain clarity and resonance by tightening its temporal structure, sharpening its thematic spine…My impression of its suggestions that they were akin to shaving the fuzz off a tennis ball (smoother but missing the point). Assuming that most new internet writing will now be run through this kind of filtration, I’ll be on the lookout for this kind of AI toxic masculinity.
