Thursday 10 February 2011

We Have a Map of the Piano

More from Iceland.
I think I posted this once before as a music clip only. Long ago. So far back I can't remember.
If I wasn't so lazy I'd go look. But that was then, this is now. Or almost now, dammit, too slow, it's then again already. Time like an ever-flowing stream and all that.

Jungle Drum?

I've been reading "The Killer's Guide to Iceland", by Zane Radcliffe.  A thriller, a whodunit, a novel, and a laugh or three.
On the U.S. Amazon site, an Icelandic reader castigates him, and finds nothing at all to like in his portrayal.
Well, maybe she's right, there's obviously some exaggeration isn't there?
So here's a glimpse of iceland, and a song by Emiliana Torrini, who, despite her name, is an Icelander.




But then I think back, way back, to a year of living in Iceland, working in Reykjavik, and the people I met, the things that happened, the places, and then I realise he's not exaggerating after all. And yes, like one of his characters, some icelanders think the whole place is boring, dull, and can't wait to leave. To me, as an outsider, it was a place of tremendous beauty, with so much happening, it was fascinating, exciting, strange, many times strange.If I were to write of many of the incidents and experiences whilst I was there, people would accuse me of fiction and exaggeration.