On my recent flight to Iceland I decided to watch some local cinema to get a better idea of their culture. So I watched a popular Icelandic comedy called Bjarnfredarson, which led me to discover the true beauty of Iceland.
The movie Bjarnfredarson is one of the greatest Icelandic movies ever made. The box office sales for the movie even out sold Avatar in the country. It's a comedy that tries to explain why Georg Bjarnfredarson is so out of touch with reality. Turns out that the main reason for Bjarnfredarson's awkwardness was his upbringing. Apparently growing up with a Vegetarian, Feminist, Communist mother screws a kid up just like you think it would.
As I watched the movie further I realized that there were holes in the story, like I was missing some back information. So, when the movie was over I scrolled through the tv shows and found something familiar. A tv show called The Night Shift had the same 3 guys staring in it. I started to watch the show and realized that a bunch of stuff in the show related to the movie.
It turns out that the movie was just a continuation of the tv series which happened to be one of Icelands favorite tv shows (kind of like corner gas and trailer park boys). I thought it was awesome that I stumbled upon some great Icelandic popular culture. Then I fell into something far greater.
Turns out that the star of the tv series and the movie, Mr. Bjarnfredarson, is one of Iceland's greatest comedians. His real name is Jon Gnarr and in his younger years was the singer of a popular anarchist punk band. Recently, he decided to run for mayor of Reykjavik in the aftermath of the economic recession.
He campaigned in May as the leader for the The Best Party with promises given to the public in a 'we are the world' style musical performance that was played on the television networks. Some of his promises included: top notch stuff as a general rule, a polar bear for the Reykjavik Zoo, all kinds for the unfortunates, Disneyland for the area, a drug free parliament by 2020, only one Santa and free towels in all swimming pools.
Since June of this year Jon 'Bjarnfredarson' Gnarr has been the Mayor of Reykjavik, Iceland. It seems that he has yet to give in to the way we feel government needs to act and has remained true to himself. In the local tourist newspaper,
Reykjavik Grapevine, he welcomes foreigners each month with a letter. This months letter explains how he could have grown up as Hitler and how he believes in Trolls because he has been to their village before.
I guess the people of Reykjavik voted Jon Gnarr in because they were so angry with how the money hungry government of before ran. I'm not sure if Jon Gnarr has made an impact on the city yet or whether his actions as a mayor will help the people or turn Reykjavik into a joke. But one thing I do know is that the towels at the public pools cost 300 krona's still.
*UPDATE*
If you were Mayor of a city and wanted to get a tattoo, what tattoo would you get? How about a tattoo of the cities logo!
Jon Gnarr recently got the tattoo of Reykjavik on his forearm! I love this guy! (Thanks Luke)
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| Reykjavik, the city of water between two pipes? |
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