lærir að vega og mæla

ATTENTION: I LOVE SKYR




on Saturday, Reykjavik was packed with adventure. the Gay Pride parade was on, and it seemed like at least half population of Iceland (250,000) was there. it was also a beautiful and amazing day.




Marina checked out downtown for a bit, then headed over to an opening at Gallery Corridor, which is a gallery literally in the hallway of a guy's apartment. He has been doin this since the 70s and owns a nice little collection of pieces by people like Dieter Roth and Fischli & Weiss. we hung out and talked with Iceland's most well-known flower painter and then headed to meet up with Una at...


Hallgrímskirkja


the largest church in Iceland.

we were there for the "Young People's Art Night" at the Festival of Sacred Arts, which started at 8pm and would go until 1am. we had awhile till it started, so a group of us went and got a drink. this was crazy, because...




this beer cost $10. you know, the usual


housemates Ari and Heini from Finland


Una the Astonishing

we returned to church and settled in for a long night of amazing sounds.



the Klais organ




Nicholas, a guy from Washington State whose wife-to-be is from Iceland (and Una's best friend) did a sound installation in the belltower. it was extremely windy. Marina and Ari enjoying



view from the tower. Korpulfsstaðir would be located to the right





in the room below the belltower, where the faces of the clock are, we watched an awesome solo violinist play Bach in the nearly darkened room lit only by candles.




another performance at the other end of the church. one stage was set up below the organ, and another on the altar.










the last performance of the night, composed and directed by Ben Frost, was my favorite of all. it consisted of seven unplugged electric guitars being frantically strummed by seven guys, and a brass ensemble, as well as some mixer trickery. result: lovely droney meditative abstract music that was so loud you could feel it in your body. it was wonderful to be able to experience this in a church as grand as this one. what is not wonderful is the fact i didn't take any photos of this.

other composers of the evenings program: Nico Muhly, Borgar Magnason, Kjartan Sveinsson, Petur Ben and Valgeir Sigurðsson.


goodnight leif eriksson


here are 2 photos i took on my walk near the house before my camera ran out of batteries the next morning.






and lastly, a view of my room/workspace.




now, i'm off to do some more work! bless bless (icelandic = "goodbye")