On My Trip to Iceland: Part Five – The End

Let’s face it: by Day Six, we had been doing some hardcore touristing for a full work-week. That’s a rather extended period of time, so we dialed back the itinerary a little. After a lazy morning, we made our way back into Reykjavik (a quick drive from Hafnarfjörður I had down pat) to check out the last museum on our list: The National Museum of Iceland. It had lots of awesome artifacts from the Viking era right on up to the present (including an LP of Björk’s debut album); furniture, armor, ornately carved ceremonial drinking horns, a ton of bric-a-brac left over from Danish and Norwegian colonial rule, and coolest of all, the preserved cheek of a young woman that died in Iceland around 920 CE. In her grave, her copper brooch shifted to perfectly cover and preserve her cheek over the years. The woman’s body was unearthed in 1938, but recent scientific advances have helped researchers learn all sorts of stuff about that lady from her teeth and DNA, for instance, she moved to Iceland from Scotland, and was malnourished as a child.

On My Trip to Iceland: Part Four – The Snæfellsnes Peninsula Saga

I was excited to get back out on the road after a day spent in the city. So I cranked on some Sigur Ros, and, later, the new Svavar Knutur CD I got at an acoustic performance he made at the Rosenburg Café on our first night, a night you can read about here.

It was a memorable show that introduced us to two other troubadours who opened up for Svavar. They played songs they’d written about missing Iceland when they were away from it, despite its long winters; expressing the beauty of Iceland’s spring thaws and the joy they bring, always tempered by the knowledge that winter would never be too far away. Svavar’s first opener was a young fellow with a lot of talent, but who relied too heavily on the same folksy finger-strumming rhythm in every one of his songs, and another guy around 35 or 40 who also had a lot of talent, but who cluttered some of his songs with erratic changes that might sound great on an album with some distortion but didn’t translate so well into an acoustic format. But hey, they’re both doing a whole lot better at that whole “performing on stage, singing primarily in a second language, and accompanying myself on guitar,” thing than I ever could. That being said, I forget both of their names, though I believe the younger one said he was studying in Germany. So, if you hear about a great Icelandic folk singer who’s based out of Germany in the next year or two it’s probably him because there just can’t be that many people that fit that description. Svavar Knutur was spoken of reverently by both opening acts, as a generous and respected ambassador of Icelandic music, and he put on a great show.

Back to our trip: We had gone east. We had gone south. We had gone southwest. Going west would involve driving into the ocean so that was out of the question. But we hadn’t driven north yet. Not very far, at least, and certainly not beyond Reykjavik. Today we were going north, and would reach the northernmost point of our journey roughly where Snaefellsnesvegur (aka Highway 54) intersects with County Road uh… Helgafellssveitarvegur. That point is at about the same latitude as the southern shore of Amadjuak Lake on Baffin Island, which is almost 200 km north of the Nunavut territory’s capital of Iqaluit. And that’s damn far north.

On My Trip to Iceland: Part Three – Swimming in Radiant Blue Water Plus Museums!

A random memory to breeze through before I get to our jaunt down to the Reykjanes Peninsula: we got used to stopping at Iceland’s selection of gas stations and grocery stores for road snacks and such – and my travel companion had a real fascination with the logo of the mascot for the Bonus chain of supermarkets. A piggy bank whose facial expression can only be described as… smugly flatulent? Just thought you might enjoy that.

On to day three. One of the major destinations we had on our list on our trip to Iceland was to go to the famous and luxurious Blue Lagoon spa. Featured in films, music videos, The Amazing Race TV show and on National Geographic‘s list of “25 Wonders of the World,” Blue Lagoon (‘Blue ‘Gloon‘ as it became known around our rental car and hotel room) actually began its life in the 1970s as the waste water pool for a nearby geothermal power plant. Since the 1980s, people noticed the skin-healing properties in the water, which is rich in minerals such as silica. Now at the Blue Lagoon you can reserve a pass to lounge in the otherworldly light-blue 37 C water, take in a sauna or steam room, cake your face in silica mud and enjoy a sparkling wine with people from across Europe and North America. It, along with the fresh and delicious seafood on offer at the adjoining Lava Restaurant, comes highly recommended – and unlike some of the other attractions we checked out, it’s under an hour’s drive from the capital.

On My Trip to Iceland: Part Two – On to the Golden Circle

(For Part One of this travel series, go here.)

Iceland wouldn’t be impossible to check out without a rental car. There are cabs to take you on short hauls or around Reykjavik and there a ton of tour companies set up to take you and 30 of yours friends on a bus to any number of different attractions – but those can get pricey too and are not the most private or daring choices.

There’s no doubt about it that a rental car was the way to go for us – even with the extra rental insurance and sky high fuel prices. At the gas stations we filled up at there was only grade of unleaded gasoline for sale, 95 Octane – which is a higher grade than even premium tanks here in Ontario, and sold for roughly $2.00 per litre.

We woke up on our second day in Iceland with the “Golden Circle” in our sights – an easy, well-marked one day trek through the capital’s hinterland and the southwestern interior that gives tourists (who might just be making a day’s stopover en route to another European destination) a decent look at what Iceland has to offer historically and geologically.

On My Trip to Iceland: Part One – Arriving

Why Iceland? It’s a question me and my intrepid travel companion (read, girlfriend) Meagan heard a lot once we made the decision to visit that distant, mysterious little European island nation.

Why not? We said. Or maybe, “I’m trying to visit every Risk territory” — for kicks.

Re-visiting Man of Steel a little over two years later Part #1

I re-watched the 2013 Zack Snyder film Man of Steel tonight and examined it for the first time since I saw it in theatres. I was working as part of an editorial internship at a men’s magazine in Toronto back then, and actually got to see the film at a press screening in the movie theatre under the CN Tower. The next day I got to go ask Zack Snyder a few questions on top of the CN Tower as part of his Canadian press junket or something. That kind of thing doesn’t just happen everyday. It was a really great experience and I only wish I could have asked him some things about Watchmen… but, yeah… So… I have glowing memories of seeing Man of Steel.

But regardless of htat, I know one thing about Man of Steel: Superman gets really unfairly blamed for all the carnage that takes place in Metropolis during the climactic final battle.

On That Canadian Tire Commercial with the truck made of ice

… can you just let me see it work in my truck before I get too excited about it?

The spokesperson says right in the commercial, “We didn’t test our new battery using Jim’s car! We’re going to test it in this insane ice block truck we built.”

How do I know there’s not a bunch of high tech software and high price automotive machinery in there, obscured by the opacity of the ice? Like, what if my car were stripped down and then re-constructed using ice and red and green paint. Would it be capable of starting up? I think my baby probably could. But we’re not all lucky enough to drive early-’00’s vintage Oldsmobile Intrigues.
$%-  – A wasp with money on its mind

The next five year streak has begun!

Canada’s winning goalie Zach Fucale, who made 39 saves in the 5-4 win

Kalee! Foo! Kalee! Foo! Kalee! Foo! – What’s that? Oh -uh heh – thanks…

Foo! Kalee! Foo! Kalee! Foo! Kalee!

Everyone can stop worrying because I fixed NHL alignment!

I just wanted to let everyone know that while I was waiting for a phone call today at work I fixed NHL alignment. So everyone can just calm down, follow this plan, and everything will work out!

I think that if you really consider things, like I did, yesterday afternoon, you’ll see just what it is that’s been the big problem for the NHL all these years. What’s really been missing. The answer of course is that we need more divisions. That being the case, I went ahead and added a third division to the Eastern and Western Conferences. Oh, don’t worry! I know you liked the conferences, so I kept them.

But I hope you didn’t like the Coyotes, Panthers or Hurricanes… because they’re gone. Well, not ‘gone’ gone – just moved! Isn’t that great? Who liked them anyways? There are two fewer Western teams right now since Columbus and Detroit moved back into the east, so you’ve got to move one of those southeastern teams to a western city. Maybe when a big Floridian or Carolinian college starts making a lot of noise in the NCAA, or families around Ontario start billeting big power forwards from Atlanta, Gary Bettman will be finally be justified for pushing hockey down there. But until then, we’ll just believe what we’ve known all along, that the American deep south can not support more professional hockey teams than Alberta and Ontario can.

First, an easy one. Instead of the Arizona Coyotes, we’ll have the Las Vegas Coyotes. No one will notice; they just changed their name this season anyways. And plus the NHL gets to be the first of the Big Four leagues to move there. Next, you’ve got the Seattle Hurricanes. Some people may not like the idea of moving a team with a Stanley Cup win… Carolina Hurricanes fans I guess… whoever they are… but I think it would be good for the city of Seattle. That whole Seahawks thing was a fluke anyways. Oh, and there you have our new 15th Western team to even up the conferences. Finally, mon dieu! La Ligue nationale de hockey is making its triumphant return to Quebec City!… In the form of the Quebec Panthers. Whether they or all three teams want to change the names of their franchises doesn’t matter to me, I have a more noble goal, remember? Fixing NHL alignment!

Well, swell. The conferences have the same number of teams now and I didn’t even have to move the recently re-aligned Bluejackets or Red Wings. All I had to move was a couple of measly teams. Now, where was I? Oh! Divisions, and why we need more of them…

Well, it’s self-evident isn’t it? They’re incredible. You’re setting up rivalries. You’re practically writing the scripts for decades of episodes of Sports Centre. Graphics designers all over the league will make emotionally moving television-break JumboTron videos for matchups between the teams you ensconce within a division. And they look really cool demonstrated visually on a map!

Film Reviews: St. Vincent

The crude but sweet St. Vincent tugs at the heart strings

By Dan Rankin

This past Sept. 5. was Bill Murray Day. Not around the world, sadly, but at the Toronto International Film Festival, on the day of the premiere of his new film, St. Vincent. To recognize the career of the comedy legend, the organizers at TIFF held costume contests and put on free showings of three of his film classics: Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, and Stripes, in which Murray plays John Winger, a wise-cracking oaf who talks his best friend into joining the army with him. Though not a sequel by any means, it’s easy to imagine St. Vincent picking up where Stripes left off, a little over 30 years later.

Written and directed by Theodore Melfi, St. Vincent portrays how the life of grizzled Vietnam vet Vincent MacKenna, played by Murray, is changed when a down-on-her-luck single mother and her pre-teen son move in next door.

Marvel’s Avengers 3 contract discussions sounding strangely similar to sports talk

It was almost a year ago, in the wake of the “Batfleck” announcement, when I first posited that the way blog commentators discuss Comic Book movies sounds remarkably like the way sports commentators discuss storylines in pro sports, particularly the NFL and NBA. Read that here.

First, yes, it has been about a year since we all lost our minds over Ben Affleck being cast as the next cinematic Bruce Wayne. And life as we know it has not ceased to exist.

Second, today I read this:

“Once Avengers: Age of Ultron hits, the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes into Phase Three… and possibly the beginning of the end. The studio’s biggest actors are under limited contracts, and those contracts will begin to expire in Phase Three. Chris Evans, for instance, has just two more movies left on his contract, and Captain America 3 will eat one of those up. Robert Downy (sic) Jr has one more film, and Chris Hemsworth is also entering the home stretch. Renegotiations can happen, but they would be costly and go against Marvel’s general spirit of keeping things cheap.”
– Via BadAssDigest

Basically, Disney and Marvel Studios are the Eugene Melnyk of Hollywood.