The Ground Of Intense Cold Under The Pole Star

The annual Reykjavi­k International Film Festival has taken place last week and along with it: a series of seminars, symposia, celebrities and special events. The openning festival kicked off with a blackout event on Thursday, to highlight the largest silver screen there is: the sky itself”. During the planned blackout, all the lights in Reykjavik, from street lamps to the lighting in homes and businesses, has turned off for half an hour, from 22:00 to 22:30. This was the first widespread intentional blackout event of its kind in the world, at least, as far as festival organizers claim to be aware of. They claimed that by turning off the lights in Reykjavi­k, Iceland’s urban youth will have a chance to see something that, otherwise, they might never be able to experience within the city. During the blackout, they would urge Reykjavi­k residents to take part by turning off the lights in their homes and businesses. They wanted everybody to be at home and looking up at stars and hoped that the northern lights will make a more perceptible appearance than usual in the darker night sky. Well, That was a flop, and a big one. I went out to check this, wishing I could see a northern light or at least a nice stared sky. But instead I could admired a cloudy gray shitty sky… Streets were indeed full of excited people but businesses did not shut off their lights and there was a great deal of traffic on main roads and in the downtown area. Big waste of time. Too bad I really liked the idea though.

For the movie festival, Daft punk’s Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homen-Christo came in Reykjavik to present their new movie: Electroma. I got some free tickets to see it in Háskólabíó , the biggest cinema. Well, I’m very confused about the movie. At first I was like “What the heck is that ?”. But then it got me thinking. The two Daft punk came over after the movie to answer people’s questions as it was the film premiere in Iceland. They explained their approach and theory about the making of. I found it very interesting. However I think they’re using their notoriety to produce a nice experimental movie that many could have done. After the Q&A I went to chat with them with some of my friends. They are very nice guys especially one of them, Thomas. They chatted with us for half an hour outside the building. We discussed about their movie and their music shortly before starting joking around of anything. This evening was totally under what I like to call the “Iceland effect” or in other words “the everybody knows everybody and no one is telling last names as we’re all friends”. The night finished with the traditional bar tour. KaffiBarinn was full of people. I spotted Baddi of Jeff Who? in the bar and jónsi of Sigur Rós near the stairs where I met two of our friends. We had lots of fun.

I had a nice discussion in a coffee with a friend of mine about guess what ? Coffee… I love coffee and consider starting a day with a nice coffee crucial ! I told her that I haven’t found a nice coffee up here yet. I can even say that I have found only disgusting one’s so far… That’s when she told me about Kaffitár. The company Kaffitár (i.e. Coffee tear’s reflecting the Icelandic habit of asking for a tear of coffee) was established in 1990 by coffee lover Aðalheiður Héðinsdóttir. Her goal was to educate her countrymen on the finer aspects of coffee drinking. The company imports the finest coffee available, directly from farmers around the world. Aðalheiður travels the world to find the best available raw materials as well as to establish a professional relationship with the farmers themselves in places such as Kenya, Nicaragua and Colombia. The coffee is selected after careful scrutiny, where the coffee’s aroma, taste and body are judged and only the best is deemed good enough. The coffee itself is processed in Iceland under the company’s strict quality standards. The selection of beverages is plentiful. I’ve been there a couple of time and always asked for either an espresso (I’m more an Italian-coffee-guy) or a classical americano. Both of them are just as disgusting as the rest I’ve tasted. Euuark.. It tastes like if someone as dropped carbon dust from a cigarette or the whole butt. Anyhow after that discussion I got the craving for buying coffee beans in Kaffitár and test if I can do better coffee on my own.