A Day in the Life of Filippus

Many of you may be wondering about my day to day routine here in Reykjavík, so I've done a bit of posed photos so you get the idea. I'm sick today, though, so I will admit that I'll not be putting tooooo much effort into the descriptions. ;)







Ahhh, morning. Me waking up with the kids!
I brought all three of them so they wouldn't be alone in the USA and miss the chance to see iceland!













My room. It actually belongs to some kid named Alex. He and his mom are gone; the place is graduate student housing, I believe specifically for single parents! His decor is still all over the wall. =þ














Here's out apartment. We have it all to ourselves! :D
















And our fantastically leaky shower. Weird how it's right in the middle of the bathroom, eh? Oh, and Iceland is a radly geofriendly place; the water is heated with geothermal power -- which means it smells like rotten eggs! (No joke!)



















'Our'? Who's 'we'? Well, this is who -- Guus! (It sounds like "hoose", but with a really difficult voiceless guttural sound first.) He's from Amsterdam and working on a linguistics Ph.D. His Icelandic is really good -- he's a lot of fun and I've glad to have made a great new pal.



















Me all set to go to school! Rockin' the scarf, yo!

















Our balcony, the 2nd floor. Note my underoos.
















Ah! The view of Reykjavík and Hallsgrimkirkja (a famous church), from right outside my place.















The university, a 5-minute walk from home, thank God. It looks like a proper institution, unlike the UCSD campus, which is being destroyed.















Ah, me at the beloved computer lab, next to our classroom. It is from here that I create Nightless!

















Teh place of teh lernings.

















See? Tissues for sniffles in class.
















The computer! note my lunch of a dried brick of instant noodles and hot tea. Who needs to cook the noodles? Not I.















No more class! Walking into town, by the pond. I love getting to walk by this every day. On my way to volunteer at an art gallery!















Said art gallery, The SAFN. I really love the work they have here.

Walking away from art gallery. Awful video.

Well, after 9 hours of unpaid work, I trot off to the pub -- only to meet my pals en route! The guy on the left os Jakub, from Poland. Then Jennifer, from the US originally but studying in the UK, then Pasquale on the right, from Italy, and then Juan's head (from Columbia) in the foreground. I only bought one drink.















Cheap food in Iceland is hard to find, but Euro Shopper makes cheapo stuff. This huge box of corn flakes is a STEAL, comparatively.
















The yellow box up top is plain ol' milk... and them Icelandic cows know how to pump out some tasty shit, howdy! Then, the Ab Mjólk stuff in the foreground, is my newfound love. It's like yogurt you can drink. So, I've poured a spiral of it on top of my cereal.

















Ahhhh. 1am = time for lernin'. :D




















And theeeen -- bed! It never gets really dark, so sleeping can be a bit hard.... but I'm usually so exhausted that it isn't really an issue.












Too bad I'm only up to this craziness for another few weeks. :(
Stay tuned for art gallery opening talks and other rants (and the occasional obloquy).


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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
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I like art!

I look better in a dishonest mirror.

One of the thrusts for this whole Icelandic shabang is to up my artwonk index. I've just gotten an email letting me know that -- hooray! -- a gallery here wants my help! :D I don't know that they are going to pay me, but at least it's a way to develop a relationship with the gallery. Maybe I can sneak them a copy of WarpZone. ;) Anyway, this is the place: SAFN. (Pronounced kind of like "sopp", and then you gotta breathe really hard out your nose. No shit.)


Anyway. Maybe this'll be something to stick on my resume.

And for now, here are some bits of the weird art I've seen 'round; expect much more.

This artist just made three rubbings of the wall behind the frames, each in a slightly different style. She drew attention to an imperfection in the wall and captured it as her 'subject'. It was interesting to see the banal subject proper, just behind the 'art'. Bravo!

This doesn't need much explanation; this reminds me, though, of a performance art piece where someone made a bunch of similar things and packaged them and even marketed them as bio-engineered living pets. Definitely creepy.

Finally, the video above was a basement installation that was a little disturbing. It was pitch black when the window-wells filled up with the liquid. Pagan runes were scratched into the glass. A small annex room has some organic, pus-looking mass hanging from the ceiling. Wonderfully disconcerting!

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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
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CARE PACKAGES!

OK, folks. I've forgotten to bring some things, so if you're feeling philanthropic, here's how you can send me a package .... but send it in the next few days or it may not arrive in time to be useful.

I need:

- A towel (I FORGOT to bring ANY!)
- Ramen or other light and cheap and nonperishable food
- Cigarettes (Some of you may not like this, but I AM buying them here, at $10/pack)
- Instant Coffee (we have no coffee pot or press)
- A flask of cheap rum or whiskey (haha, alcohol is CRAZY $$$$ here!)

... or anything else you think I might miss from home.
Hjálp!

Here's the address:

Philip Sharp
Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Sigurdur Nordal Office
Thingholtsstraeti 29
P.O. Box 1220
121 Reykjavik
Iceland

Thanks. ;)

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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
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Road trip!!

OK, well, it's not like I was able to rent a car or anything, but thankfully the tuition fee for the course here includes a few touristy excursions. Farðu!







The Icelandic flag blowing in the wind.












Me amusing myself and others on a lucky Icelandic rock pile. Thanks, self-timer! Screw you, fat! By the way, this is actually a glacier field.





The above pictures were taken after we visited the ancient site of the original Alþing, or Icelandic parliament, which is believed to have been the oldest democratic parliament in existence (especially considering that it is still running). The sites were amazing; it's no wonder the Icelanders were inspired to write such amazing sagas and such circumspect pop lyrics, given the otherworldly topological environs. The problem, though, is that it was overrun by insects who apparently weren't fond of foreigners. I got mouthfuls. At least I didn't go hungry that day.




I think this is Sayaka, our Japanese representative, amidst some very pretty Icelandic flowers.









How's that for some blue water?







I think there's a good degree of pseudo nature-worship even in contemporary Iceland, or at the very least under the watchful aegis of this program. I think they assume we're all into either Icelandic sagas or Icelandic pop music or Icelandic men/women, so they've really been driving home the unique geology of the landscape. This has considerably dimensionalized my relationship to Icelandic cultural products, as I hadn't previously realized how rife with allusions to landscape the Icelandic pop scene really is. I recommend... what's it called? "I Am the Landscape" by The Sugarcubes. "I wanna be here, right with you, that's where I'm staying... where no one can find me!" (Hopefully I've got the song/lyrics right.)




My homage to the Enjoy the Silence video.












Strange sculptures are in abundance 'round these parts. I intend to do a whole post on the later; shooting for 25 photos with some kind of information about each. Stay tuned!








A shot of the seaside and country structures through the modernist sculpture above.











Corrugated metal makes for warm worship away from winter woe.








The pictures above were taken in front of a famous old Icelandic church. The flux of Christianity seems to be a crux of urbane profanity, but the austere little shacks that the Lord is worshiped in really do install a sense of understated awe with their almost wabi aesthetic. When speaking to an Icelandic guy about my travels, who rolled his eyes and laughed at the idea of touring to see all the little churches, but I found them really fascinating. If I ever get married, maybe it'll happen in a little Icelandic church...






The drive home. Do you see the word "hell" if you enlarge the picture?






To be certain, my mind was alive with speculation and introspection given the drastic change in psychogeography (or changes, many, in one drive!) and the idyllic (and sometimes wild) driving of the bus. One of these days I'll post something of interesting intellectual content, I promise.

In the meantime, expect posts soon about my artful endeavors here in Iceland, and also expect to be BEGGED for care packages. More frettar as it happens. Sjáumst!

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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
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Funny finances, funny video.

So, I haven't got time to write the vast saga that would properly describe this past weekend, but I do have time to tell you that during this month I owe more in credit card bills (a single bill at a whopping $220) than I even have in my bank account, even assuming I somehow spend $0 for the next three weeks and skip paying my storage unit. Looks like I'll be trying to find a job. I'm trying not to vomit. Maybe I should eat something; maybe I can't afford it.

In the meantime, I have a funny video, taken of me on a lucky rock pile near an Icelandic glacier? Doesn't it look like I'm on the moon? It certainly felt like it. Costs like it, too.

Take that, puffins!

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Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
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What a long weekend!

I'm pleased to announce that between the bar life, study trips, and some general buggery around the house, this past weekend was, in fact, rather lively. Highlights include: flea market lust, sabotaged beer, a dead man's bath, swarms of insects, an economy lesson from a philosopher, and so on. More on these later.

I'll start with a less exciting short post for now, though. I've found this little spot just behind where I live that gives a gorgeous view of the ocean and the rural communities around it. There's a bench there along a running path there... and I'm fond of parking myself there now for music and homework. Observe:

This was taken "late" at "night"

See me?

Small structures dot the seaside.

Even Icelandic graffito_wonks have got lovely design sensibilities.

You folks have got it backwards; leather is for pants, and denim is for shoes.

Stay tuned for more posts about the long weekend!

◘◙----------------------------------------------------------------◙◘
Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
◘◙----------------------------------------------------------------◙◘

What a long weekend!

I'm pleased to announce that between the bar life, study trips, and some general buggery around the house, this past weekend was, in fact, rather lively. Highlights include: flea market lust, sabotaged beer, a dead man's bath, swarms of insects, an economy lesson from a philosopher, and so on. More on these later.

I'll start with a less exciting short post for now, though. I've found this little spot just behind where I live that gives a gorgeous view of the ocean and the rural communities around it. There's a bench there along a running path there... and I'm fond of parking myself there now for music and homework. Observe:

This was taken "late" at "night"

See me?

Small structures dot the seaside.

Even Icelandic graffito_wonks have got lovely design sensibilities.

You folks have got it backwards; leather is for pants, and denim is for shoes.

Stay tuned for more posts about the long weekend!

◘◙----------------------------------------------------------------◙◘
Mail Pilaf about his Nightless travels: pilafdm@aol.com
Donate so that he survives them.
◘◙----------------------------------------------------------------◙◘