Focus on Iceland: The fanatic self-image
Yesterday I gave a speech at an Iceland conference in Helsinki. Amongst other speakers were Friðrik Andersen, bank manager at the Nordic Investment Bank, and Pekka Mäkinen, regional director for Icelandair in Finland. I gave the speech in swedish, but for easier writing I composed it in english and then translated it. The text... »
An ocean in an archipelago of languages!
The people of Helsinki speak Finnish. Mostly. A minority speaks Swedish as a first language, but they all speak Finnish as well. So when you go to the grocery store, you speak Finnish. A lot of my friends – mostly through my wife – have French as a first language (my wife is a... »
Poetry Portal and Poetry Scandal!
Couple of things: I have opened a poetry portal. If you have suggestions for streams to be incorporated, please write. Thanks go out to Jón Örn Loðmfjörð for boundless help. It’s still a bit slow, but convenient despite the slowness. I had some stuff over at Other Cl/utter the other day, recommend whole site... »
A week in Iceland
I’ve spent almost a week in Iceland now – in Reykjavík only, having not had time to go up north – and will return to Finland tomorrow morning. The first thing that happened when I landed was that a group of people invaded the Central Bank, demanding that one of the three directors of... »
IMF! IMF! OMG! OMG! – at the Turku Poetry Week
IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! IMF! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!... »
Two books, two readings & a CD
Two books out, very recently. First: Ú á fasismann – og fleiri ljóð, 20 visual poems and 20 sound poems (book + CD) out from Mál & menning. Then Maíkonungurinn, Allen Ginsberg selected and translated into Icelandic, also published by Mál & menning. They’re out in Iceland, and as I am in Finland, I’m... »
Iceland, the IMF, Russia etc.
In a nutshell the Icelandic economic depression could be described thus: nouveau riche assholes trashed the currency playing stockmarket cowboys with immense amounts of borrowed money. The newly privatized banks enjoyed generous credit with foreign loan institutions and became mega-monsters that over-shadowed the government budgetwise. When the shit hit the fan (as tends to... »
Emily Brygger
Being away from Finland means I don’t always notice things when I should – Mikael Brygger’s excellent book, Emily, is not only out but FREE as a PDF on Nokturno. Check it: http://npc.nokturno.org/mikael-brygger/ »
The importance of destroying a language (of one’s own) – full version
(The following text is an extended version of a previous text written as a mini-lecture for the seminar Alternativ publicering/litterær innovation in Biskops Arnö, Sweden, 10.-13. may, 2007 – but never read, since I was displeased with it, and decided these ideas needed much more than the 15 minutes given in Sweden. Instead I... »
The pitfalls of Kallio
They tell me most people who move to Finland, do so through Kallio. We immigrants may move further on later, to other neighbourhoods or townships, but this is where we take our first steps in a brand new civilization – this is where we form our new misconceptions and build complex new stereotypes in... »