Friday, August 31, 2012 — Lutheran Cats

Halls­grim­skirk­ja

Reykjavik´s most promi­nent visu­al land­mark is the Halls­grim­skirk­ja named after Hall­grimur Peturs­son, a 17th cen­tu­ry poet whose haunt­ing hymns I have record­ings of at home. It´s a twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry struc­ture, in con­crete, but it´s style so suc­cess­ful­ly fus­es mod­ern and goth­ic ele­ments that it has a “time­less” look. It is equal­ly pleas­ing in the inte­ri­or. The stat­ue in front of it is of Lei­fur Eiríks­son (Leif Eric­son). The res­i­den­tial streets around it have a pleas­ant jum­ble of old and new hous­es. Seri­ous, Luther­an-look­ing cats peer from the win­dows. Next to it, there’s a rather spooky lit­tle enclosed gar­den filled with the sculp­ture of Einar Jonns­son, and a muse­um devot­ed to him. His work might best be described as “hero­ic fan­ta­sy”. In this gar­den set­ting, it is quite enchant­i­ng. I don´t think it would look as good in the cold light of a gallery. Read more »

Thursday, August 30, 2012 — Most People Get Lucky In Iceland

After a flight enlivened by bone-rat­tling tur­bu­lence and a mad­woman mak­ing a scene in the plane, my first glimpse of Ice­land was, appro­pri­ate­ly, the bright glac­i­er of Snae­fell­sjökell (see pre­vi­ous entry), fol­lowed by a rapid descent into Keflavik. From the air­port, it was a hour´s bus ride across chaot­ic black lava fields to Reyk­javik. Read more »

Monday, August 6, 2012 — Countdown to Adventure

In about three weeks, I’ll be land­ing at Keflavik Air­port, in Ice­land. While I do have some pre-set appoint­ments, for the most part, I’ll be explor­ing that inter­est­ing coun­try in my usu­al unplanned, eccen­tric way. I must cram as much expe­ri­ence as I can into a mere ten days ― not much time, con­sid­er­ing how much that coun­try has fas­ci­nat­ed me over the years, and how much I’ve read about it. But read­ing about a place, no mat­ter how thor­ough­ly, is no sub­sti­tute for walk­ing in it, talk­ing to its peo­ple, get­ting the smell of the air and the lay of the land.  Read more »

Image of the month: Gingerism

12-08-01 BLOG Image of the month - Gingerism

FILMS – JULY 2012

(DeVi­to 1987) Throw Mom­ma from the Train
(Tron­son 1974) Father Brown: Ep.1 ― The Ham­mer of God
(Dou­glas 2010) Time Team: Ep.223 ― Litling­ton, Hamp­shire — There’s a Vil­la HereSome­where
(Schaffn­er 1968) Plan­et of the Apes Read more »

First-time listening for July, 2012

22953. (George Fred­er­ick Hän­del)Bels­haz­zar, Ora­to­rio [d. Knothe; Schreier, Frank-Rei­necke,
. . . . . Treck­el-Burkhardt, Pohl]
22954. (7 Sec­onds) 7 Sec­onds
22955. (Youth Lagoon) The Year of Hiber­na­tion Read more »

READING – JULY 2012

23347. (Snor­ri Sturlu­son) The Prose Edda [tr. Jesse L. Byock]
23348. (Joe Halde­man) The Acci­den­tal Time Machine
23349. (Hen­ry Kut­tner) The Vam­pire [sto­ry]
23350. (Gus­tav Unger­er) The Mediter­ranean Appren­tice­ship of British Slav­ery
23351. (Gore Vidal) The City and the Pil­lar Read more »

Paul Oakenfold — Global Underground 004 Live in Oslo, 1997

This fine mix was record­ed live at Cos­mopo­lite Club in Oslo, Nor­way, as part of the Quart Fes­ti­val. The two-cd set shows two rather dif­fer­ent sides of Oakenfold’s con­sid­er­able tal­ent. The first cd is very mel­low drum & bass merg­ing into goa trance, bare­ly dance-able, but quite enter­tain­ing to lis­ten to. The sec­ond cd is live­ly house that would be best enjoyed on your feet. This comes from the peri­od when the club scene was prob­a­bly at its peak in Europe. Nei­ther part is a “dense” mix (tracks come togeth­er only a few bars at a time). There is noth­ing here that has the impact of Tran­ce­port, but it’s a good sol­id set. Lucky were the Nor­we­gians on that floor.

12–07-01 BLOG Image of the month: The Incredible Team of Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk!

12-07-01 BLOG Image of the month - The Incredible Team of Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk!

FILMS – JUNE 2012

(Rus­sell 1958) Per­ry Mason: Ep.41 ― The Case of the Lucky Los­er
(Warn­er 2010) Time Team: Ep.212 ― Pierce­bridge, Coun­ty Durham — Bridge Over The Riv­er
. . . Tees
(Groening,Brooks & Simon 1991) The Simp­sons: Ep.26 ― Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth
. . . Com­mand­ment
(Tay­lor 2012) Game of Thrones: Ep.11 ― The North Remem­bers Read more »