reykjavík

The clown takes possession of City Hall

June 16, 2010

So, old Jón Gnarr* of the Best Party took over as Mayor of Reykjavík today. On that occasion, he gave a short speech. Excerpt: When I was young I wanted most of all to be a circus clown when I grew up. I looked particularly to the Billy Smart Circus in that respect, since it [...]

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Ash Friday

June 5, 2010

What a strange day it’s been today. [Or, well, technically yesterday, since it is now past midnight.] No sooner had I responded to this post in the forums about the extreme rarity of ash fall in Reykjavík than the sun vanished behind a thick cloud of — you guessed it — ash. And then it [...]

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Best of Reykjavík: Ideas for a rainy day

June 3, 2010

Thanks, everyone, for all the great ideas in the comments to the last post! You totally surpassed my expectations with the sheer number of potential categories. And so, no time like the present to launch our Best of Reykjavík category! Mike Richards was first, and wants to know about: The best free place on a [...]

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Best of: Reykjavík!

June 2, 2010

In an effort to lighten up the content of this website a bit, and not least to give some reciprocal love to our valued sponsors, I’ve decided to start a regular weekly post featuring the “best of” various aspects of my fair city: Reykjavík. I’ll be giving my personal takes on the “best of” whatever, [...]

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Dissecting the Best Party’s appeal*

May 31, 2010

So here we are, the day after the day after the elections, absorbing the fact that a comedian is about to become the mayor of Reykjavík and trying to figure out what this all means. I’m totally weary of the “people want change” slogan, because, well, duh! Obviously they want change — otherwise the Best [...]

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Best Party wins, Jón Gnarr for mayor

May 30, 2010

So the final results in the local elections went just as indicated by the exit polls. The Best Party got six out of 15 seats on the Reykjavík city council, the Independence Party got five, Social Democratic Alliance three and Left-Greens one. Old Jón Gnarr [the popular comedian who is at the helm of the [...]

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First exit polls: Best Party front runner in Reykjavík

May 30, 2010

Well, the first exit polls in the municipal elections are in. As predicted by the polls the Best Party is largest in Reykjavík, with around 8,000 votes of around 21,000 ballots counted. The Independence Party gets around 7,000 of those votes and loses two council seats. According to those figures, the Best Party gets six [...]

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A brief missive from the bleary-eyed

May 28, 2010

I’m back from Brussels after a whirlwind trip to European Union HQ. It was four days in total, of which two went exclusively for travel, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. Mind you, I had zero expectations at the outset — I’ve done these sorts of official trips before [...]

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Better than best

May 23, 2010

So, as some of you have already alluded to, a poll conducted yesterday [Friday] shows that the Best Party continues to increase its substantial following and would get a clear majority on the Reykjavík city council if elections were held today. People: I cannot tell you how significant this is. This is the people of [...]

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Reykjavík nightlife and the wild wild west

April 6, 2010

A few years ago, agents in the Icelandic tourism industry successfully marketed Reykjavík nightlife as the hot new ticket, all wild and free and hip and crazy. Young people from all over Europe flocked here on the weekends and Reykjavík gained a reputation as THE place to party. A couple of years later, the then-majority [...]

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