The al fresco nap is standard practice here and Icelanders clearly have it down to a science.
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The Icelandic pavilion which was designed for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai was presented to the representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the committee preparing Iceland’s participation at the Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús on Friday.
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Click on the picture to observe how to prepare a traditional Icelandic meal of roe and liver (hrogn og lifur). At this time of year, egg pouches are harvested from female fish, mainly cod and haddock, and sold in fish stores around the country along with the liver. The egg pouches may not look appetizing; just remember that caviar is fish eggs too.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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Hjalti Jakobsson launched the computer program Peel earlier this month. The purpose is to locate new mp3 files online and introduce them to users.
“During the last two or three years mp3 blogs have become a cultural phenomenon. People write about music, post songs or link to songs on band websites,” Jakobsson told Fréttabladid.
“What I did with my program is to summarize all this so it’s accessible in one place,” Jakobsson explained. He is studying computer science at Reykjavík University and describes himself as a computer and music nerd in one.
“It had begun to annoy me how much time I spent surfing from one mp3 blog to another to stay updated. In the program [Peel], you subscribe to the blogs and then the program follows novelties and finds the songs,” Jakobsson said.
“The program lets you know, almost like an email service, whether there are any new songs that you haven’t listened to yet. Then you press play and listen to the songs, just like in other music programs,” he added.
By pressing one button Peel users can also read about the songs or upload them into other music programs like iTunes. Peel is only available for Macintosh users at the moment, but Jakobsson is working on a version for PCs as well.
When asked about the origins of the program’s name, Jakobsson explained: “Peel means unveiling something and so discovering something new. And it’s a reference to the famous radio presenter John Peel. This is sort of in his honor.”
Users can download the program for free from www.getpeel.com to try it out. “There are still a few flaws in it, but the final version will be ready in one or two months. Then I will sell it for about ISK 1,000 [EUR 11, USD 15],” Jakobsson said.
Peel has been well-received. "The program has twice been featured in Wired and the mp3 bloggers have responded positively," Jakobsson said.
New subscribers to the quarterly Iceland Review magazine will receive the photography book Puffins, which contains a wealth of information about this colorful bird, as a gift. Additionally, all subscribers will enter a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to Iceland Review. The new issue will be out next week!
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When I first heard of the photographic book Legend by Fiann Paul, portraying people dressed in Viking-style in Icelandic landscapes, I imagined it would depict scenes from Norse mythology. However, the idea with the book is to tell a story of how “The Seeker” finds “The Legend” and it feels like a wishy-washy self-help book.
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Fresh back from Brazil, where she was one of 28 international judges at the ‘Cup of Excellence’ awards, Kaffitár founder and owner Adalheidur Hédinsdóttir sat down with Atlantica’s Mica Allan in Kaffitár’s Bankastraeti cafe to talk about her passion and delight: coffee.
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“Lucy” is a video and music installation by Dodda Maggý (1981), the 15th artist to exhibit in Reykjavík Art Museum’s D-gallery project in the Hafnarhús exhibition hall. In “Lucy” the artist explores the idea of the “acousmetre,” a film character portrayed only by voice, never in body, omniscient and ubiquitous.
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