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Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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A song by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós from the album ( ) (2002) will be used for the two-minute trailer of The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, to be released in the US next month.
According to Fréttabladid, Sigur Rós will receive ISK 25 million (USD 419,000, EUR 303,000) for permitting the use of the song, which will not be played in the actual movie.
“They’ll pay us something; it’s always like that,” said band member Georg Hólm. “It depends on the country and the producer. If it’s a small movie from New Zealand we won’t get much, but if it’s a big Hollywood movie we’ll get paid accordingly.”
Hólm said the band is more open for selling their songs for trailers than for full-length movies. “If the song would be in a movie, we’d have to see the scene and read the script. If it’s a trailer it’s not as important, but still important. Every band member has to agree and we need to know who the director is.”
The Invasion is a remake of the science fiction thriller The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and features a strange outbreak which changes people’s behavior. It is directed by the German director Oliver Hirchbiegel.
Sigur Rós has earlier permitted the use of their songs for the trailer of Children of Men (2006) and in the movies Vanilla Sky (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), and many of the band’s songs have been played in the US suspense series CSI.
Sigur Rós is currently working on a new album. “We haven’t started recording to any extent yet. We are just wondering about things and taking our time writing,” said Hólm.
The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
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The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
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The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
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One hundred and forty million cubic meters of ash is estimated to have fallen in Iceland during the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull last spring. That excludes all the ash that fell into the ocean and in other countries.
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
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On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
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Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
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