independant people, band, 101 reykjavik

independent people is a book by icelandic author Halldór Laxness. written in 1948, this book later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. it "... is to have evoked the mood and rhythm of life in an isolated community in a remote corner of Europe as no other writer has done since the time of the great Icelandic sagas." we follow the life of a small farming family in iceland in the early 20th century. i usually have trouble with the style and rhythm of writing from this era, but it completely and totally works for this 600 page monster. one learns a lot of icelandic history, gets a feeling for its contemporary roots, and we come much closer to understanding icelandic identity. i highly, highly recommend this book.

i joined a band! with a bunch of icelanders (and one pole). the lineup is hjortur on drums (and guitar sometimes), hugrun singing, girl whos name i can't remember on keys, girl whos name i can't remember 2 singing and playing guitar, me playing bass and singing. my friend alice was in the band before she left, and i saw them perform 2 weekends ago and was impressed. and they were looking for a bass player, so voila!
we're just establishing our rhythms for practice, etc, so things are kind of up in the air, but i'm stoked. we jam at hjortur's place, and hes got 3(?) kids, i think; so i get to hang out with an icelandic family often. its perty rad and lucky. i think i'll actually be composing music for this project, cause its really open ended.

i just watched a hilarious film: 101 reykjavik. it was made in 2000, and was pretty much entirely shot in reykjavik and the surrounding area. theres a few scenes with the university in it, and plenty of shots of bars i've been in, streets i've walked on, etc. its pretty good for just seeing what the place looks like, and kind of what it feels like. be warned, its pretty racy and theres quite a bit of nudity. its hilarious.