Recent Stories with tag iceland

I didn't get to the Crocodile on Friday night until about ten, but since the show didn't wrap up until almost one a.m., there was still plenty to hear, culminating in the hybrid vigor of the John Roderick/Mugison pairing. The two husky, bearded men (see above) took to each like long-lost brothers, and their set felt more like two Norsemen rattling the rafters than guests sitting in on each others' songs. "I have had so many of you in my ear," said Mugison before the show, "I don't feel like I'm coming to do a gig, more like I'm coming for a reunion."

It was a sort of miracle of chance that the artists sparked so entertainingly, because the show (previewed here with YouTube clips), "Sister City Showcase: Reykjavik Calling," gave everyone involved just hours to meet, learn song parts, and perform.

It was presented by KEXP-FM (Kevin Cole, right, KEXP's senior director of programming, emcee'd) and supported by the City of Reykjavik, the Seattle City of Music Festival, Icelandair (now nonstop from Seattle to Iceland) and Iceland Naturally.

A plenipotentiary from Iceland's embassy in Seattle (also right, but I was too busy getting the picture to get the name) even appeared, to explain that from his first visit to Seattle on a wet, gusty, wintry day, he felt right at home. Having experienced Reykjavik in October, I can tell you the reverse is true.

In fact, if you didn't know the people involved, you might have been hard-pressed to tell the Icelanders from the Seattleites, as the following pictures will perhaps illustrate. I missed the first set of Nathan Wade and Pétur Ben, but there was still a line down the block of people braving the lashing rain to get into the show. Inside, the crowd was elbow-to-elbow, and I had to gradually salmon my way forward far enough to get a few shots.... (more)

KEXP's "Reykjavik Calling" showcase actually unites the talents of both Seattle and Icelandic musicians, but you scenesters are no doubt are familiar with Rachel Flotard and Rusty Willoughby, John Roderick, Jason Dodson, and Nathan Wade. (Really all we need is some more electronica and we have Iceland Airwaves South.)

But if you haven't been following the Icelandic Music Awards closely for the past few years, you may be wondering what's a Mugison? A Sin Fang Bous? A Lay Low? And who's this Pétur Ben character?

The beauty of this particular evening is that there's no barrier to simply showing up and finding out on your own--it's free. Doors open at 8 p.m., but depending upon how concerned you are with getting in, you may want to arrive early. (It's 21-and-over though, so don't show up earlier than your 21st birthday.)

Let's prep with a little tour down YouTube's Icelandic lane.... (more)

 

 

Yep, another week of SIFF here and gone.  All of us at The SunBreak weigh in with our picks and pans of the films shown at the festival this week.

Tony saw Ahead of Time, a concise, solid doc on the achievements of Ruth Gruber--arctic explorer, World War II Correspondent, and chronicler of the 1947 Exodus. At age 94, Gruber's more articulate and sharp than 99.9 percent of people a third her age; her restless streak, eloquence, and charm made her an enchanting documentary subject.

Josh had a shortish SIFF week: Waste Land, a meandering but discussion-provoking documentary about Vik Muniz and the garbage-pickers who inspired his portrait series. At times I couldn't tell if this film wanted to be about the artist, the gleaners, or the way that large-scale portraits made from materials found at the world's largest landfill could transform lives. It succeeds a little bit on each of those fronts, but could have used a stronger narrative focus and a critical voice stronger than the artist's wife (who falls out of the picture midway, via an off-screen mid-project divorce). Quibbles aside, the artwork is astounding and Muniz found incredibly charismatic subjects. We left wondering not about how to "save" the pickers of Jardim Gramacho, but curious about whether similar poverty-driven recycling efforts happen here.

I really enjoyed I Killed My Mother, a très style-y collage chronicling the growing pains between a temperamental teen artiste and his single mother. The explosive tantrums and outlandish verbal spats felt true to the spirit of adolescent angst; the mix of hypersaturated fantasy sequences, off-center camera angles, quick cuts, and philosophical confessionals captured the spirit of a young auteur. Against likely temptation, Xavier Dolan doesn't let himself off the hook too easily, revealing an awareness of his own childish behavior and rendering a sympathetic portrait of his mother. (June 6, 2010 7:00 PM @ the Egyptian)

Audrey also had Quebecois fun at I Killed my Mother, but I wonder if writer-director-lead actor Dolan has another film in him; this one is so personal. Coincidentally, Bilal's Stand is another intimately personal film, in which writer-director Sultan Sharrief has made his first feature, based on the story of how he, as a black Muslim teen, made it from an inner city Detroit taxi-stand to the University of Michigan, via an ice-carving college scholarship. It's a solid first film (and the community involvement it took to make it is inspiring), though of course it's not as OMG as I Killed My Mother.... (more)

Iceland's mind-blowing Blue Lagoon

"Inspired by Iceland" is the big social media push that's launching to reassure travelers that Iceland isn't one big volcano. Technically it sort of is, but the point is that most of the rest of the country is not erupting, it's perfectly safe, and just as wildly beautiful as always. If you're at all worried, what with the volcano being at the south end, all you have to do is drive north.

If you've already been, they're soliciting traveler's stories to get the word out--you can submit your own at the site, or just listen to Viggo Mortensen's.

Another Icelandic roadside attraction

We at The SunBreak are big Iceland boosters, even though it is obvious to most of you that Iceland doesn't lie precisely within Seattle city limits. But observe our geometric logic: First of all, it is as if Iceland and Seattle are contiguous because you can take light rail there (granted, there's a moment where you get off the light rail at Sea-Tac and onto an Icelandair plane, but that's a blink of an eye.)

Second of all, what would be miserable Icelandic weather to most tourists makes the Seattleite feel right at home. Mid-50s and rain? Heavenly. So you can't lose.... (more)

As you may have heard by now, it was thirty years ago today that Mt. St. Helens blew its top, ultimately killing 57 people and spewing 540 million tons of ash into the air. Today also marks the thirtieth anniversary of Ian Curtis's suicide. (Coincidence?)

One cannot speak of volcano eruptions nowadays without mentioning our friend Eyjafjallajokull, which is back to its old tricks, closing airports and disrupting flights as far away as India. That pesky Icelandic volcano may serve as a global travel annoyance, but in terms of destruction, it ain't no Mt. St. Helens. Still, the timelapse video above (via BoingBoing) sure is pretty. Added bonus:  Jónsi!

Our stranded-in-Berlin correspondent, Charles Redell (who writes on sustainability and hangs out at Office Nomads) was supposed to fly home to Seattle on Saturday, but an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano put an end to that. Here is his first, second, and third reports on dealing with his unexpected stayover.

My time here in Germany is starting to turn into some semblance of a normal life, if you can believe it.

What does normal mean in completely abnormal circumstances?

It means spending the morning working in the hotel lobby surrounded by ten or so newly-expat compatriots while the U.S. sleeps. Talk about a great way to get through backlogged emails.

It means taking a break around noon and biking to a new neighborhood that may promise new adventures, new food, or at least new scenery. This in turn means finding a small cafe in an up-and-coming part of town and parking oneself on the balcony above the fray watching and analyzing the comings and goings of young, hip, beautiful Berlin.

"There's one that's in love with the barista."

"Look, Americans."

And also finding ways to tune out the constant drone of German techno.... (more)

To re-cap: A group of twenty journalists traveled to Germany for a week to explore green building in Germany thanks to the German Foreign Ministry and The Eco-Logic Institute. Near the end of the trip, a volcano in Iceland erupted and European airspace was shut down.   

Our stranded-in-Berlin correspondent, Charles Redell (who writes on sustainability and hangs out at Office Nomads) was supposed to fly out on Saturday, but instead he spent it traveling to the airport to rebook tickets, then being a tourist for a few hours. By the end of the day, Charles' re-booked flight on Sunday was canceled and he was told that next Sunday was the soonest he could get on a flight. Here is his first dispatch and his second dispatch.

Things in Berlin are looking up, for our group anyway.

Today dawned sunny and warm, prompting a few of us to explore the possibility of renting bikes for our stay here. We found an awesome program, run by the German rail system. Simply put, you register with Call A Bike and then pick up a bike at the train station. A computer lock tracks your time with it and you're charged .08Eur per minute (9Eur for a day and 36Eur for a week). When you're done, lock the bike, call the system and number and tell them where in the downtown core it is, and they pick it up. Could not be more simple.

We took a nice slow ride out to the airport, six kilometers away. The entire trip was on dedicated bike infrastructure, much of it grade separated and with bike signal lights. There were no lines at the airport and I got a ticket booked for Thursday, which is currently everyone's best guess for the second day travel will be allowed.

On our ride, we found a trail along the river that ended up winding through a collection of small cottages that seem to be weekend homes for Berliners, within an easy bike ride of the city. In the summer, when the city is stultifying, they seemed to the perfect solution for a population addicted to true sustainable urban living.

Now, we sit, satisfied with our day, in love with our adopted city, and relatively content with the idea of spending more time living and working here, even if when it may end is unclear. [Photos after the jump.]... (more)

Our stranded-in-Berlin correspondent is Charles Redell, who writes on sustainability, hangs out at Office Nomads (oh, the irony!), and was in Berlin for a international green conference. He's still very much there, thanks to Iceland's ash-spewing Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which has disrupted flights worldwide. Here is his first dispatch. This one includes a photo gallery after the letter portion:

I've been trying to sort out how to explain what's been happening while stuck here in Germany for an indeterminate amount of time because of a volcano (a volcano!) and finding it terribly difficult. One thing about this experience is that things have been happening very fast, and very slowly at the same time.

Last night as I sat down to write about my day of bureaucracy, I realized that events I thought took place Friday actually happened earlier that same morning. But by the time I was writing, I'd been through two re-bookings, bought and returned a train ticket to Frankfurt, and done some touristy stuff.

Keeping up with things in anything like real time is impractical, if not impossible, since my smart phone is not compatible with European cell networks (I am forced to find a hotspot to use it or my laptop), and compiling all my thoughts at the end of the day just turns into a long ramble of events, experiences and thoughts, none of which can be sorted until this is all over.

So in the place of dispatches from an isolated Europe, I offer you images of the effects as I see them. In only some will the direct relationship to this unprecedented event be obvious, but over the coming days, the shots I send back will be things I've experienced only because of the Icelandic volcanic eruption and images of Berlin and Europeans dealing with it.

In the meantime, wish me luck as I look to rent a bike and ride it first to the airport, and then wherever the wonderful bike infrastructure takes me. Oh, and if you can work on helping me manifest clear skies and a seat on an airplane before next Sunday, that'd be great too. [Photos after the jump.]... (more)

The Toronto Star is doing it, so we will too. Our stranded-in-Berlin correspondent is Charles Redell, who writes on sustainability, hangs out at Office Nomads (oh, the irony!), and was in Berlin for a international green conference. He's still very much there, thanks to Iceland's ash-spewing  Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which has disrupted flights worldwide. Here is his "letter home" about how he learned of his extended stay, and spent his Saturday.

Word of the Icelandic volcano eruption first came as some kind of odd rumor. It was one of those stories that just don't make any sense on a morning when your brain is foggy from four days of travel, non-stop events, and Berlin beer halls.

As the day progressed though, the details became clear and all of us started realizing that with the press tour ending last Friday and flights home starting on Saturday, things were about to get interesting.

By Friday night's closing dinner, we all knew that this was not, actually, a closing dinner. All of our flights were canceled by then. A group gathered in my very small hotel room with our laptops and began Skyping all our airlines.

By 3 a.m. some ridiculous trips had been planned (a 5:30 a.m. train on Sunday from Berlin to Frankfurt to catch a 2 p.m. flight to Houston, with a connection to Seattle, for example), and we stumbled to bed.

When we woke up on Saturday though, things looked sour--and the hotel was telling us all that we couldn't stay. One of the airlines had booked all the rooms. We panicked. After a quick cup or seven of coffee, my brain slipped into planning mode.

We decided all to go to the travel agent who booked us to try and get alternatives, since the airports were now looking as if they were going to open by Sunday. Before we started off, we heard from the organizer of our trip, calling to tell us he had found the entire group rooms at a new hotel.

When he heard our plan to attack the travel agent, he told us not to bother: the office "is not what you think it is." With no cell phones with international plans, we couldn't call anyone, so we struck out for the downtown Berlin Lufthansa office. Which is closed on weekends (really).

We dug up a travel agent who said all we could do was call the airline or go to the airport. The news kept saying not to go to the airport, but calling meant being on hold for hours and they generally won't do anything when you do get through. We decided to go out there as it is just a 30-minute U-bahn (subway) ride.... (more)

The Johnston Ridge Observatory volcano cam is maintained by the USFS and is located 5 miles from the crater.

The competition is close, but I think the HD cam trained on Mount St. Helens just slightly wins in a cam-to-cam comparison with the three cams watching Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. These two aren't even in the running. The resolution is pretty good, but not great, and they're a bit smaller. (I should add that when the volcano is acting up, they are all slow to load from traffic.)

This web cam is located in Þórólfsfell, which has a view over the river Markarfljót and the glacier Eyjafjallajökull.

This live feed from a cam located in Þórólfsfell, on the other hand, is huge and copes relatively well with nightfall. The instructions say that nighttime viewing can be exciting, in fact, thanks to glowing from the volcano.

Speaking of coping, the BBC headline is "Flight chaos to continue into weekend."

The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured an Ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano over the North Atlantic at 11:35 UTC (7:35 a.m. EDT) on April 15, 2010. Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team

That stream of volcanic ash that looks like the Big Muddy has thrown commercial airlines into a logistical turmoil not seen since 9/11.

Sea-Tac's Icelandair flights aren't going anywhere near the ash. A special volcano alert reveals that flights to London, Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen have been canceled. [UPDATE: But they are flying to Iceland tonight, now that the ash has been exported--see this post's comments.] It's not just Icelandair, if you're planning on flying: because of the ash plume, officials have now shut down airspace in Britain, Ireland, France, and Scandinavia. The ash may invade Germany's airspace next.

Europe's busiest--and simply terrible--airport Heathrow is closed, and everyone at British Airways is facing a long, long day. The Washington Post quotes an aircraft safety expert as saying it could take up to two days, once the volcano stops erupting, for flights to resume.

When will the eruption stop? ABC asked Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office: "It is likely that the production of ash will continue at a comparable level for some days or weeks."

Here, NASA explains why planes don't fly through volcanic ash--it gets sucked into engines, and its etching ruins cockpit visibility. For more on the volcano itself, don't miss these photos of the Eyjafjallajokull eruption on KOMO's site. Evacuation has been more widespread with this more violent eruption (ten to twenty times more powerful than the earlier March eruption), as glacier melt has fed rivers and led to flooding.

While other members of Sigur Rós are using the band's indefinite hiatus for domestic things like tending to their children, lead singer and frequent bowed guitarist Jón ("Jónsi") Þór Birgisson teamed up with composer Nico Muhly to concoct a lush and surprisingly upbeat solo album. To coincide with the release of Go, he partnered with Fifty Nine Productions (who previously designed sets for the Metropolitan Opera Company and English National Opera) to create a a dramatic stage production to take on the road. The tour concluded its two-night stint in Seattle last night at the Showbox SoDo.

On his own record, Jónsi sounds regularly happy. Performed mostly in English (instead of the usual Icelandic), the songs trade just a little bit of Sigur Rós mysterious grandeur for a touch of pop accessibility. Wearing a fitted patchwork costume draped with multicolored fabric streamers and sprouting feathers, he led the band through most of the album without much chatter and a whole lot of enchanting otherworldly falsetto.

All the while, the set sprang to life in various ways: walls of greenhouse windows became animated with hummingbirds, prowling wolves, and timelapse vegetation; decaying taxidermy boxes sprang to life with fluttering butterflies and searing flames; trees and creepy owls appeared amid strobes on ragged burlap. (The Wall Street Journal, of all publications, has an excellent interactive article about it). My only minor complaint is that the whole spectacle might have been better served by a venue without a flat floor and more generous sightlines, yet it was nevertheless thrilling to behold.

With the close of the second encore, Jónsi donned a feathered headdress and used the set design to its fullest. Dancing wildly and occasionally crawling with projected fireflies, he seemed to summon the rainbow apocalypse with a swirling hailstorms, rolling clouds, and a thunderous wall of sound. Despite continuing applause, the show closed without another song. Instead, he and the band returned to endearingly clap back at the audience and take their bows. 

Iceland might be bankrupt, but Iceland Airwaves survives. The new music festival is just two weeks away, running October 14-18, and tickets are...sold out. (Peanuts AUGH!) Here is the lineup you'll be missing unless you have tickets already.

It's not too early to start planning for next year, so you don't end up in a similar situation. The big change is that Icelandair flies direct to Reykjavik (Keflavik airport) from SeaTac, so if you were to book today on your way to the festival, you could fly nonstop, roundtrip for $887. (Right now the most common low fare, one-way, is $388.)

Airwaves is known far and wide for its "intimacy," which is a way of indicating that most venues are no bigger than the Sunset Tavern or even Hopvine. The venues are all within walking distance (depending on the weather) in and around downtown Reykjavik. If my memory serves, all feature a beer called Egil's Gull and as the night progresses, some terrifically hammered Icelanders. Ambulances collect those struck down by alcohol poisoning.... (more)

More elfin Icelandic charm than anyone can really resist is bottled up inside Ólöf Arnalds, the folk magician. For her encore at the Crocodile last Friday night, she stood alone at the front of the stage and sang a little something from an oral Icelandic saga.

If she wants, she can produce what sounds like birdsong--a piping soprano--but she also sang (with her guitarist, whose name I am not even going to hazard a guess at spelling) a series of older country songs from the likes of John Prine ("In Spite of Ourselves") and Hank Williams, and sounded straight out of Patsy Cline-era Nashville. It's not that surprising that these hardscrabble American pioneers have written songs that speak to the Icelandic experience--and not just because Iceland is bankrupt recently. Subsistence living is Icelandic to the core.

Her debut album title translates as "Now and Then," and often sounds like harpist Mary O'Hara, if your Babelfish wasn't working properly. There's both an ancient troubadour quality, and, given that the songs are about friends and people she knows, an intimate feeling, as if wherever she's singing is just a larger version of her living room.

After they broke for "intermission," playing two songs quietly as background music for drink-ordering and conversation, the crowd's murmur threatened to overwhelm their next song. "How are you feeling?" Ólöf asked sweetly. "We're feeling pretty good, too...up here on the stage, singing, now that intermission is over." And the hubbub stopped. Ólöf runs a tight living room.

Ólöf Arnalds

To mark Icelandair's new direct flights to Iceland from SeaTac, Iceland Naturally is putting on a mini-Icelandic cultural festival, and that marks the most times I've typed "Iceland" in a sentence, ever.

 

For the foodies hungering for innovative tastes, you've got chefs Thorarinn Eggertsson (from Reykjavik's Orange) and Peter Birk at Ray's Boathouse. Their Icelandic menu is available today through the 13th.

Probably that menu will not include whale because of the potential controversy, disappointing fans of tremendously musky, salty, oily food. But if you want to talk about Iceland and sustainable fisheries, for free, then tonight you can weep salty tears of joy. Don't miss "The Icelandic Project on Documenting and Communicating Responsible Fisheries" (6-8 p.m., UW Health Sciences, Hogness Auditorium Room A420).

There's also a free Icelandic film fest at the Varsity in the U-District: White Night Wedding (6:30 p.m.) and Rafskinna (8:20 p.m.). For White Night Wedding, writer/director Baltasar Kormákur has updated and tweaked Chekhov's Ivanov, and the results are a distinctly Icelandic bittersweet sensation. A middle-aged professor is about to marry a former student on the island of Flatey, during the time of year when Icelanders all get a little crazy from the unending daylight.

The third episode of Rafskinna, a DVD magazine, is about music and features: "Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Olaf Arnalds, Dalek, Emiliana Torrini, FM Belfast, Retro Stefson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Michael Madsen, Finboggi Petursson, Nico Muhly, Psychic TV, and Curver Thoroddsen." That's a nice segué to our next item!

Friday night, September 11, singer Ólöf Arnalds appears at the Crocodile ($10, 21+, 8 p.m.). Expect "emotionally rich" folk music of the kind you can preview right here. It's her first West coast show. People Eating People open.