avoid getting hit by cars

Time to upkeep the narrative of Wilma's Wish's Icelandic experiences


We have been writing letters, attending voices of experience, joining up with screening events. it's funny how it is such a consistent part of our dailies. There's heavy anticipation. As we want to make this film, we also attempt active in the political knowledge of our global world. Social reform is riddled with questions and conversations continue. From these considerations, we have ideas for art installations. We will update on this as well once we get underway.

Vagueness aside, Eileen and I attended the Múm concert at the Opera House in Toronto last night. Smiles were on our faces the entire streetcar ride home. Open this song in a new tab to listen as you read. (i wish i was more web savvy than giving internet cave-person instructions)

Opening acts can be a pain in the heels. For the time it takes to wait in line for a good spot(especially at general adm shows) and the two hour wait before the main act, one's feet can start to feel impatient. Some people show at concerts right when the main act begins, bypassing the openers completely. When openers are good, it is fucking fantastic. Last night, at Múm's show, there was instrumental sounds from three members of Múm. SET CHANGE. There's three mics and Eileen turns to me, jaw open. "That's Sidri!" I look and he is tuning his guitar. How wicked, we had no idea. In June, we flagged down Sea Bear for a chance to interview, and we see Sidri again in a band of his own.

I like to seek out experimental music to see what chances people are taking. At times, experiment only works for a one-time novelty listen. It takes a certain type of resilient confidence in a musician to keep on making music that not many people would enjoy. To me, Sidri, or under the pseudonym of Sin Fang Bous, thrives and succeeds in sound-play. His live performance hooked up nerves in between the pillar of the neck and ears and inversed them towards the toes. What sensory magic! Alternating between three mics, his songs imprint a memory.

So unexpected and great. Hellos, how are you and safe touring travels wishes were exchanged. See soon, maybe?

Múm exceeded expectations. Ongoing joy, hip rocking and pivotal vocals. All of them have such talent, able to alternative between blow keyboards, whistles, harmonicas and vocal ranges. And the drummer hit percussion with innate precision. Great great show. Crema on the coffee:: a song along as the last song. A woman carried out bright bristol boards to prompt the audience. Beautiful handwriting Múm, I have typography envy. All this morning, I have been singing an abridged version of that song.

so beautiful. so fucking beautiful. sing along to songs you don't know.

Catch them on tour if you can! http://www.myspace.com/mumtheband

Music Video's and Lemon Cake

I just love life. And that may
sound a bit too "Mary Poppins"
but .... that can't be so bad.

Over the past two months I have been looking at the research and filming we did in Iceland this summer.
Video's like this remind me (loudly) that there is a resounding enchantment to these expressions from this Island of 300,000.
Icelandic Animated Music Video (CLICK ME)

I want you to think about your favorite music video. Did it make you love the song? Did you love the song and so you can't help but love the video? Now think about a time when the video RUINED the song! Now that we have gone through a range of emotions, please turn on your Itunes, next play a song at random, now imagine from start to finish what the video would look like for this song.

We are so alive.

keeping on

sunshine demands you to be outdoors, absorbing.

in the wind-down, the mind picks up.

Reminders like this video shakes stagnant.

this gent is Olafur Arnalds.

An End is A Start

Early into our stay in Iceland, we went to a lecture by Christopher Patrick Peterka called "The End is the Start". I was so inspired by this lecture that my pen wouldn't even write as fast as the great quotes were coming. Peterka is not Icelandic but he has a huge interest in helping Icelanders feel empowered by the crisis rather than dampened. And from what we have seen and heard from the Icelanders we met, they are not going to be steam rolled by the economic hardships.

He called Iceland "The new Global Think Tank". Iceland not only produces incredible artists but it also has made leaps in the field of technology and networking communities. We went to the Ministry of Ideas (which is a building dedicated to housing cubicles of brilliant groups and nurturing their ideas to fruition. HOW INCREDIBLE!!!Mission statement ;Ministry of Ideas is the people's movement in Iceland. It inspires the country and the rest of the of the global village for a new world model.-

Peterka did say one thing that stayed with me without even looking at my notes; he said "change cannot happen without mobility, to move forward you must be willing to leave behind everything you were attached to."( I took this to mean the surge of cars, second homes, and fancy toys bought in the boom -previous to the collapse).

After the lecture was over we were all instructed to reach under our seats and pull out the first thing we were going to do to participate in positive change. I was concerned about old gum or other foreign stickyness but to my happy surprise I found a glow stick. The old raver in me felt like it was party time but my patience let me see that it was all part of a message on the wall. We snapped our glow sticks as the entire room of people (including members of Sigur Ros) with their illuminated plastic tubes jumped up and made these words peacefully and powerfully exist. I love how this entire crisis is being interpreted by Icelandic "creatives". It seems to have lit a fire under their creative tushes and I am honestly in absolute awe in what has developed in this short amount of time to combat what has devastated their economy.

So it's late as I write this, very late. . . just as magical as I find this nation and its people to be- we are going to see some equally imaginative and magical things in the next year come out of Iceland. Stay tuned.

To read more on the "And End is a Start" lecture visit our friends at Iceland Review

Hidden People

Iceland is "known" for a number of things that are whimsically ethereal;

Sigur Ros: Bjork:
Puffins:
Hákarl: Rotten Shark Meat



And Trolls- When I asked about the tale of trolls I was told "They are called Hidden People". There are dozens of articles, podcasts, books, and films about the belief of the hidden people in the mysteriously beautiful landscapes of Iceland. "I think it's something we feed to tourists" - one man said when asked at our hotel. So that night I went out by myself to the dock. It was 1AM but was as bright as the late afternoon. I am not going in with any preconceived notions of fantasy esc. creatures going on this trip. And given the amount of attention the world wide press gives to it, I am just turned off all together from asking more than a small handful of people if they "believe" (on a side note, no one said no).
Back to the dock: I was taking a time lapse and i kept hearing someone running up to me. You know that scuffing sound your feet make when they are on the cement? So I would look up quickly and pretty freaking scared. Nothing. This happened well over a dozen times and I even pretended to keep taking pictures to see if I could catch what ever the noise was. The thought came to me "oh my god, the hotel manager said this was the town where the hidden people live, they are pissed I am up so late." So I ran back to my hotel like a goat on fire.
So all to say, I am not sure if there are Hidden People in Iceland but I can tell you. They don't give a care if I believe or not.

Good Night.

Iceland Votes Yes To EU

Today Iceland's Parliament voted in favor for Iceland's application to join the European Union.
During our time in Iceland we interviewed a number of people ranging from artists, government officials, think tank go-getters, to students of economics; all feeling differently about the upcoming vote concerning Iceland joining the EU.

I found this graph to be a helpful breakdown of the varying interests with in the political parties:
Political parties' stances towards membership

Group	Party		Position	Main argument as stated on party websites
Government		Social Democratic Alliance	Yes	"We want to apply for an EU-membership and start negotiations. We will seek a national unity in this matter and use the national referendum as the highest court."[35]
		Left-Green Movement	No	"EU-membership would diminish the independence of Iceland even more than the EEA Agreement does and jeopardise Iceland's control over its resources."[36]
Opposition		Independence Party	No	"The Independence Party holds that Iceland’s interests are best secured by remaining outside of the EU while conducting a close healthy relationship with it based on the contract for the European Economic Area, which opens up the internal market of the EU. A complete membership would threaten to take control over Iceland’s biggest national resources, such as the fisheries."[37]
		Progressive Party	Yes	"..if personal and business rights were protected, especially in regard to fishing and agriculture; and if the accession talks were open and democratic."[38]
		Citizens' Movement	Yes	[39]
No seats in the parliament		Liberal Party	No	EU stance was decided in a party members' poll in January 2009.[40]

This is all part of our research- We will be going back to Iceland in 6-8 months to re-examine and document the changes that occur within decisions like joining the EU.
While interviewing the editor of a number of successful Icelandic publications, Benedikt Jóhannesson; he said, it is hard to say right now how the crisis has effected the general public. Changes like these take a bit of time to be implemented and their effects can take months to really be seen.

So we (Wilma's Wish) are going to bookend what we saw, heard, found on our last trip with what happens to Iceland after this massive collapse a year later. How fascinating to see what will be a historic moment not only for Iceland but also for the world.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=336820

On The First Day ...

On the first day we arrived smack dab in the middle of National Day! It ironically was the last day of the Viking Festival as well but we will get back to that...


Zoom- our plane arrives
Beep- we are rushed to the hotel


Oops- we went to the wrong hotel and wrong city
Ahhh- arrive at hotel
Huh- vikings with swords running in front ya rd
Hello, hello- meeting, greeting hotel manager
Oh no- We are not in the city we need to be and Johanna (Prime Minister and the reason we rushed to get here on th is day is speaking in one hour!!)
BEEP- cabby please take us to the city center as fast as you can (and yes you can give vague directions like that in Iceland b/c most everyone knows everywhere)
Look!- Right as the cab pulls up we leap out, a para de of scouts start the event off, formal elegant members of society follow.
Not Allowed In- Where do we stand? You must have a press pass! Well we do but we left it ummm... somewhere? Please let us in. Hmmmmm...... ok
Steve there She is- It seems like it takes forever for Johanna to emerge from the beautiful church to her podeum. She stands up straight and walks with confidence. The speech was in Icelandic (understandably) certain things transended language and the crowds roars made me feel we got here for something very important (a celebration of boyancy).
Stay tuned for the what happened next....

Scary Birds are Everywhere!

Bria and I had a meeting last week with the Film Centre in the center of the city. The building was this massive glass structure and the inside made me feel like the Jetsons would go zooming by any second. Everyone there was well dressed, which seems to be a common theme in Icelandic businesses, super slick attire. This sculpture was on the wall and Bria gazed at it with her "designers daughter like awe". Art is just everywhere in this country and maybe I need to look harder but it seems much more concentrated here than anywhere I have seen before. Have you ever wondered what hell looks like? Well take a gander at this painting. In hell all the creatures would look like this bird (I am guessing here).


I thought maybe when I left Iceland that it would feel empty and maybe I would even tear up a bit. This was such an important first step towards our journey so maybe I understood that and took in all that had happened and how lucky we were to even get this chance to be witness to how this nation is going to make change out of crisis.

Field of Art

I am not really a person that can think linearly... thoughts come in blips and bleeps.
I sit here with my "bush fire" iced tea from a last minute cafe before Bria and I leaped back to the hotel. There are so freaking many strange and beautiful coincidences that happened in this adventure. So ... throughout this next week. I will indulge in the memory banks and hopefully you will find it as magical as it was to experience.

Anna Torfadottir, a native Icelander, amazing print maker (website), and great friend to us during this production took us to this site... The artist (I am looking for his name and will post it up when I recover it) had so many of these aluminum sculptures that he donated them. So imagine this; you are driving down what seems to be a pretty everyday type of road with grassy fields then you come over this hill and POW, a hillside of massive silver shapes!

I loved this.

Grab your attention, vona

We are home now, in somewhat unfamiliar-scapes. Let us reflect our last three days.

Thursday, oh busy day.

After trying to *#&%^# figure out a way through this shopping center (our last hotel is in a concrete wasteland, highlighted by bare neon signs) to the bus, we take a taxi cab. At Café Paris, we meet a gent from Iceland's Ministry of Ideas.

Ministry of Ideas?

When presented with a crisis, change is synonymous. Required are generators, facilitators and make-it-happen-ors. Through surveys, group collaboration and thoughtful task segments, a new society design is possible. A touch socialist, thankfully erring on the edge of optimism.

Noise takes us out of the cafe and nearby the North West harbour to a raw warehouse. Offices developed on one side, white walls everywhere else and toes echo here.

Grateful for the interview, we shake hands with designers, thinkers, artists and general playmakers. Next, to Gogogic, a video game development company.

Lovely lady greets us and offers us water: sparkling or pure? Both varieties are dispensed from the same spout which clues us in on how high tech these people are. Our interviewee, CEO Jonas, is held up in a prolonged meeting so we get a tour of the Mac infested space. We meet a beefy gent with a combed blond mohawk. He is working on the designs for a brand new viking game set for Facebook. As the images flick through his computer, he explains characters, amenities and the supreme goal of the player, which is to create the greatest viking empire on Facebook. This is called Vikings of Tule. It. Is. Awesome.

A great interview with Jonas is followed by another excellent interview with Iceland Review Online Editor, Eyglo. She was endearingly nervous for the camera, and super eloquent in her observations. This marks six straight hours of interviews and $35 in cab fare. Food please.

We do some hotel stuff to meet a very Transylvania-esque hotel manager. I saw a white lab puppy that I wanted so badly to scoop up and run for the hills with. TV dinner time lulls us to sterile sleep.

Breakfast is the usual - toast with orange/blueberry marmalade. So yummy that complaints aren't necessary. We do a fair bit of hotel business before trekking downtown for a day off. Eileen and I munched and hung out on a third storey patio doodling in our haggard sketchbooks. So many memories to retain, hopefully not lost in story-telling.

With lava beads in hand, we realize it is our last night. Night life in reykjavik is a must-do. So we chat with a handsome barista and sit on benches with strong capps in hand. People watching. There is a girl wearing happy yellow heels, drinking fine wine from a bag, looking up and trailing a ciggarette to her friend. Live music is everywhere and pours between round/angular geometric architecture. There is no exclusivity here. Warm faces and hearty drinks makes for a fine time. Blink and Atlantic reflects the sun at eleven in the evening.

We watch a horrible reality television show with a lady sign interpreter in the bottom right corner of the screen. My insides clenched as we watched her make facial expressions in jest of the television host. Oh, priceless.

Michael Jackson.

Last day in Iceland.
With heavier bags due to gift baggage, Steve, Eileen and I wait for our friendly shuttle bus driver, Conrad, or Konni. He offered to drop us off at the Blue Lagoon as a complimentary detour on our way to the airport, which is very much out of the way. This helps make it much more affordable for us to see a part of Iceland's natural assets. Otherwise, I'm not sure if we would have gone. As we drive, we see clouds of steam hovering over black lava rocks. The water IS blue. The name is not joking. It is relatively empty; whew, less tourists.

Konni leads us into the Blue Lagoon desks and before we know it, he had signed off a visa. "Have fun kids and see you at three!" A quick scamper and our heart-jaws are wide open. What amazing generousity.

It was lovely geothermal bliss. It is a pool of naturally hot seawater that is considered to be one of the world's top ten medicinal spas. The steam coaxes your eyes close and the water holds you at ease. Clay on your face (facemask), waterfalls, cave-like saunas and a juice bar. A worthy relaxation. If you can avoid the busfulls of tourists, stress is absent.

Oh friends of Iceland, we were sorry to board the airplane. But your words and generousity have inspired us. Until we come back...