We now interrupt our regular programming to cater to the Magni fan club

This one's for you:

Magni's leaving Iceland this weekend to go on a 6-7 week, 28-concert tour throughout the US and Canada with Toby's band Juke Kartel. Dilana and Toby [obviously] are also on board. For some obscure reason they're opening for this band called Supernova.

He has applied to become the regular guitarist of the Rockstarsupernova house band, as the previous one has gone off to play with some obscure chick named Avril Lavigne. Magni: "Best musicians I've ever worked with", "Honoured just to be able to play with them", "No ambitions to 'make it big' in the US". Apparently the house band is receptive to the idea of having him on board.

He's back to Iceland in March to play with Á móti sól: "That's my band, it's number one."

Regarding his separation: "The first rule to keep in mind if you want to become well-known or famous or whatever you want to call it is that you can't fight gossip, that just makes it worse. As long as my family knows the truth I really don't care what a bunch of lonely housewives are saying ... It's only when it starts to hurt people I care about that it becomes annoying." So take that, all you lonely housewives.

On whether something is going on between him and Dilana: "That does not even fall under gossip. Not worth responding to. But stories like that are inevitable." Make of that what you will, you lonely housewives.

Incidentally, all this has been shamelessly lifted from an interview with our man on mbl.is. Except for the last bit, which was shamelessly lifted from last weekend's Fréttablaðið.

AND NOW I HAVE GOT TO GO FOR A RUN BEFORE I START TO SCREAM
On account of the endorphin withdrawal that currently ails me. Trouble is, it's absolutely freezing, -5°C if mbl is to be believed, and as every Icelander knows, if Morgunbladid says it, it must be true.* It's been getting gradually light for about the last hour and it promises to be a clear, sunny, beautiful, frigid day. Sunrise due for 11.08 and sunset for 16.08.

*Note delicate sarcasm.

[PS for some reason the formatting gets all screwy when I try to use bullet points. Which is why they have been removed and this post is not as attractive as it was supposed to be. I hope you can live with that.]

Of concerts and prophets and storm

Remember Rockstarsupernova? That had the Icelandic nation in it's vice-like grip last summer, all on account of third cousin Magni being a contestant?

If you do, you'll also remember that our Magni came in fourth on account of the entire Nicelandic nation staying up nights to vote for him. And when it was all over, There Was Talk of the Supernova house band featuring Magni, Dilana, Toby and Storm Large going on tour as an opening act for Supernova featuring Lukas. Which meant that everyone was still One Happy Rockstarsupernova Family and, more importantly, all the fans of all the singers would be buying tickets.

However. Barely a month had passed before the Supernova camp had nixed all reports of the house band touring with them as opening act. Why? Well, rumour had it - and YT believes it - that Supernova were just too freaking scared to have the superexcellent house band open up for them. After all, that very talented house band with its evident artistic integrity would have been a pretty tough act to follow and would, in fact, have highlighted the shortcomings of old Supernova and its desiccated rockers to the extent that the entire Rockstarsupernova enterprise would have seemed like a bad joke.

Not to be undone, however, our Magni has simply summoned the entire crew over here to Niceland. So now the Supernova house band, plus Magni, Toby, Dilana and Storm, will be giving two concerts here this weekend and both are already sold out. And you can bet they'll be rockin'.

SPEAKING OF CONCERTS:
The Sugarcubes - remember them? They played a reunion concert a couple of weeks ago to commemorate 20 years since the release of the single Birthday, that made them famous and launched Björk Guðmundsdóttir's career. The thing about that concert was that it wasn't even sold out and Icelanders seemed completely nonplussed about the whole affair. Whereas around 1000 punters came from abroad just to attend. Compare that with the two sold-out events above and it just goes to prove that nobody is a prophet in his own country.*

OH AND THIS:
Sufjan Stevens was one of the punters that just couldn't give the Sugarcubes a miss. He was here to play two concerts at Fríkirkjan [that evidently were to die for and got five stars out of five in all the media and YT is kicking herself for always missing all the good acts even though I've only heard one song by the guy but apparently he's the greatest thing since sliced bread] and his earlier concert happened to be on the same evening as the Cubes were playing. So old Sufjan moved the concert up to 6.30 pm just so he could make the Cubes at 8.30 pm [or thereabouts]. Which proves that Sufjan Stevens recognizes prophets when he sees them and isn't Nicelandic.

BUT WHAT OF IT ALL? THE WEATHER:
Is miserable, thankyouverymuch. They issued a storm warning, and just like that the storm came. It started blowing late morning just as YT was out for a run and then it just got worse and worse and right now it's dark and the wind is whipping around the house and if you drive down by the shore your car will get doused in sea water and will rust to pieces. Temps are holding steady at 4°C [a lot more with windchill, though] and the sun came up at 10.42 and set at 15.50.

*Icelandic idiom.

Magni, Dilana, Rudy, and stars

THE STARS
Thursday night’s darkening of Reykjavík was a big disappointment – although a worthwhile experiment that with any luck will be done again. But next time if the glaring pizza joints and blinding video stores and floodlit sports arenas and thousands of motorists [that just had to be on the move for that particular half an hour] could cooperate by just shutting off their frigging lights/staying home, that would be great. Just turning the off streetlights does not a dark city make. As we now know. Rating: one star out of five.

RUDY
Went to see Rudy Giuliani give a talk yesterday afternoon. He was in Niceland at the invitation of Síminn [Iceland Telecom] that splashed out the GDP of a small African nation to celebrate its centennial yesterday. I happened to be among the privileged few invited to the talk, conducted under the watchful eyes of Secret Service men in black suits and sunglasses muttering into microphones. A fairly atypical situation for us Nicelanders, who are used to meeting the Prime Minister in the grocery store and walking up to the President’s residence and ringing the doorbell if we feel so inclined without anyone saying boo.

Anyway, old Rudy was greeted with much enthusiasm by the Nicelanders – enthusiasm bordering on humiliation if you ask me, as is sadly too often the case when someone superfamous visits our fair land. For example, while his talk was engaging and interesting and all that, it was definitely not worthy of two standing ovations. [YT remained resolutely seated for the second one, grr.] Particularly as the previous talk, by one Andrew Zolli, was – as a talk – much better prepared and more riveting than Giulianis [but garnered no standing ovation]. Zolli, incidentally, is a ‘futurist’ – a unique breed of geek [his term] whose occupation it is to predict and analyze the trends of the future. In practice this means he is paid a gazillion dollars by the world’s leading corporations to tell them what sort of mobile phone [or whatever] will be trendy in 2011. Freaky.

Rudy took a while to warm up, but once he began to relate his experience of 9/11 he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Which I suppose is not difficult, given the intensity of the subject matter and the immense psychosocial significance of the event for everyone in the Western World. And the way he used his experience of how he handled that horrific day to illustrate his points about what makes a good leader was really quite fascinating. Not that he seemed to have any lofty ideas about himself – on the contrary. In fact I was much impressed by his modesty, intelligence and critical self-analysis of himself and the United States as a nation. He was asked about his intention to run for president and would neither confirm of deny it, but nonetheless gave a completely satisfying answer. Rating: four stars out of five.

MAGNI
When the conference ended, guests were directed down to a new space in the Laugardalshöll arena, where the mutha of all birthday celebrations was to be held. It was certainly attended by enough people – my rough guess would be around 2,000, all of whom were fed delicious hors d’ouvres and poured as much white/red wine as they could imbibe. And there was ‘entertainment’– some girl [methinks Icelandic Idol contestant but can’t be sure as stopped following it some time ago] singing a completely cringe-worthy Happy Birthday in typical American diva style [read: endless vocal gymnastics and flourishes, yech], after which our Magni took to the stage, wished Síminn a Happy Birthday and craftily remarked that he believed he was solely responsible for its excellent revenues [at least over the course of last summer], after which he played a rendition of this to the delight of all. He then took his leave, suitably excused since he was scheduled to play a concert [funded largely by Síminn] with scary old Dilana that evening, to which many of the guests at the party would be heading. Rating: three stars out of five.

DILANA
So yes, all you ‘dilana in iceland’ Google searchers out there: a) Dilana is in town, is playing four shows with Magni and his band Á móti sól, b) told Blaðið yesterday that she would do anything for Magni, that the most important thing that came out of her Supernova participation was her friendship with him because he completely ‘got her through the experience’, c) that she may move to Iceland for a few months if she likes it here, d) a concert is apparently planned with the Supernova house band, featuring Magni, Dilana, Storm and Toby. Rating: Don’t know, wasn’t there.

OH AND OF COURSE THE WEATHER
Which looks amazing and which I am about to take advantage of right now. Congratulations to all who made it through to the end of this post, temps currently 9°C with sunshine and slight winds from the northeast, sunrise on this last day of September was at 07.33 and sunset due for 19.01. Enjoy your weekend!

Magni demigod

As every blogger knows, Site Meter can come up with some priceless Google searches. Today, amongst the ubiquitous 'iceland weather' and 'magni supernova', SM delivered up a handful of gems that somehow landed on the Iceland Weather Report page:

hardcore sex uterus close up picture free

... Come again?? - Or on second thought, no. Nononono.

iceland woman no teeth

... Dang! How did you find me?

woman who have had their panties stolen

... Probably our panty thief, trying to remember where he went last.

what they eat in iceland

... Um, could it be:

brains for dinner

... Er, no...

icelandic sheep's tongue cooking

... Yup, that's more like it. But not quite.

weather report toy

... Oh sure. Dream on, sucker!

Meanwhile, the best piece of advice I was offered today came from my pal Greavsie. The next time I have a difficult decision to make, all I need to do is ask myself:

"What would Magni do?"

I'm saved! We all are!!

FOR INSTANCE, WHAT WOULD MAGNI DO ABOUT THE WEATHER?
Surely he would have left it as it was today. It was a gurrrgeous day, bright and sunny, even if there was a little hint of chill in the air. The light is so amazing when the sun starts to sink a little lower in the sky, not to mention when it gets a bit colder - clear and translucent. Difficult to describe how the light of the north differs from that of more southern regions, it's truly something you have to experience. Right now the temperature is 8°C and sunrise was at 07.07, sunset at 19.33.

Magnisupernovarockstar again

So here I was all ready to drop the Magnisupernovarockstar thing but dang! there's just too much to tell. I mean, rockstarsupernova was adequate blog fodder and all, but believe me: now is when all the dirt is being dished. It's only been two days but already any media worth its salt has published/broadcast a Magni interview in which he holds forth at length about what really went down in the Supernova mansion. Yowsa!

So at the risk of alienating my loyal readers who come here to read about waterfalls and glaciers and immortal plumbers and such, I've decided to run with the Magnisupernovarockstar thing a little longer - so please don't leave forever, this madness will end soon!

KASTLJÓS DOES LA
Props to Kastljós, who flew the lovely Ragnhildur Steinunn out to LA with a big fuzzy microphone to sweet-talk her way backstage and give us 'normal' interviews with the rockstarsupernova crowd, i.e. contestants and band members. To wit:

Ragnhildur Steinunn to Tommy Lee: So do you think you will come to Iceland and play for us there?
TL: I hope so. I fucking hope so. I want to. We all want to.
RS: Do you know where it is?
TL: ... Is it close to... wait. Is it close to... wait. I'm trying to picture the map. There's Russia... Iceland... Finland... am I ... am I close?

Full segment here.

MORGUNBLADID PUMPS MAGNI
So Iceland's most 'respectable' daily got hold of our Magni and got him to dish about the experience. It's a pretty interesting interview, particularly where he talks about how devastating the isolation was at the mansion. Apparently each of the contestants had their own personal psychologist but people were still losing it, particularly towards the end. The bit where Dilana freaks out and breaks the glass that cuts Magni's head open wasn't the worst of it, according to our man. Loads of stuff went down that wasn't made public. As to how he kept his sanity: "By looking at and observing everybody else's mood swings. I just focused on everybody elses' problems. Josh was losing it at one point. I just thought about him, and not me. It totally worked." Evidently Magni was the 'father' of the house - not hard to understand why. He also got the name 'The Human Jukebox' because he could play every song there was.

FRÉTTABLADID MAKES A MEAL
Meanwhile, Fréttablaðið got even more nitty-gritty:

• Magni's most likely going on tour with the Supernova house band in January.
• Magni's most likely going to play a gig with his old band Á móti sól at the end of the month.
• Magni's old employers don't want him to come back to work for 'lousy pay' - for the last seven years he's worked in a plexiglass factory to supplement his income while making music.
  
• The only people who were 'unattached' in the Supernova mansion were Toby and Dana and the rest of them were always trying to get those two together but evidently without success. Apart from that, there was no hanky-panky. [shucks!]
  
• Josh was Magni's best friend in the mansion. After he left, Dilana and Toby were his best friends. "It took two to fill the void because Josh was so much fun."
• The plan isfor the house band to play a concert in Iceland in December, and Toby, Dilana and Storm want to come along. The house band, according to Magni, was the genuine article, "Probably the best band in the world. The drummer is amazing and one of the best people I've ever met."
  
• Magni wouldn't have minded winning, but was truly glad that Lukas won because he needed it more than Magni. - Come again? "Yes, because I have a perfect life. And now I'll just go back to living my perfect life. But Lukas doesn't really have anyone to go back to." Except the warm embrace of the Supernova family. Aw.
  

Anyway, that's enough for one evening. Sunday at 4 pm there's going to be a reception in Penis Mall where some bands will warm up the crowd and finally old Magni will get up with Á móti sól and play a few songs. If only they could do away with the godawful Cabinet Minister thing [apparently the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are both candidates to 'officially greet' Magni - CRINGE! - and if it must be one of the two, please let it be the PM, I'll say no more] and just let him do his songs so he can go home and schmoozle with his girlfriend and hug his son - I mean, really. Hasn't the guy suffered enough?

And finally, as to whether the experience has changed him: "Completely. I know I still love my girlfriend and my son, but apart from that I don't have anything in common with the man I was before." So there you have it.

AND OUR MAGNI-FICENT WEATHER?
Rained like gangbusters this morning, then we had showers, then the sun came out and it was lovely and mild - then we had showers again. Temps currently 10°C and sunrise was at 06.50, sunset at 19.54.

Supernova bye-bye!

The suspense is over: our man Magni landed in fourth place in the rockstarsupernova circus last night. Phew! It was a close call, but in the end Canada’s own Lukas Rossi stood up as the frontman of the band that in future will be known as The Band Formerly Known as Supernova.*

Anyway, Magni is now on his way home and will be given a hero’s reception in Penis Mall [a.k.a. Smáralind] on Sunday, as is common for Icelanders who have Gone Abroad and Conquered [the last such being Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir a.k.a. Miss World, who was trotted out in Smáralind in full regalia and greeted by the Prime Minister who gave her a book].

Our Magni claims that he’s not at all upset about not winning and that in fact he expected to be axed after the first two weeks on the show so all in all he’s quite satisfied. Evidently he’s had a few offers that he’s keeping decidedly mum about, but did say that he’ll be going on a six-week tour with TBFKaS [see above] in January. Until then, he’ll be turning off his phone and spending the time playing with his son. Meanwhile, Magni’s girlfriend Eyrún is quoted in Fréttablaðið today as saying that when they get home [she was out in LA for the finals] she’ll cook up some poached fish and boiled potatoes and spend the next few months having it cosy. Keepin’ it real, like.

Okay then! That concludes our Supernova broadcast – unless such circumstances arise that warrant further reporting. As has been known to happen in the past.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG....
We’re having the first of our International Film Festivals at the moment [the second will open at the end of the month – overkill? Or cultural sophistication?... discuss.]. Sadly I’d not found [made] time to see any of the stellar films on offer – until last night, when I went to see Tsotsi, a South African film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film this year. Beautiful! Truly an amazing film that manages to consistently walk a tightrope between brutality and some of the most tender emotions known to man. It begins by showing the main character as an ice-cold monster, and in the space of around 90 short minutes manages to peel away the layers to reveal his utter vulnerability, without once displaying an ounce of sentimentality. If there is a moral to the story it is that his redemption depends on his unconditional surrender on so many levels – a message that could save the world if it were put into practice by more people. Highly recommended.

WEATHER!
Overcast and breezy with showers. The sun made an appearance a short while ago, but unfortunately bid a hasty retreat. The forecast is for sunny spells, though, so all hope is not lost. Temps are a balmy 14°C and the sun came up at 06.47 and will set at 19.58.

* On account of some court ruling that sez some other band has the right to the Supernova name.

Supernovanationalisticfever

Second-last episode of Rockstarsupernova this evening, and the Icelandic nation is holding its collective breath to see how our man Magni does. It's quite a fascinating social study - the most unlikely people are completely absorbed by the whole spectacle and Magni's part in it. Never mind that most are ambivalent at best about whether or not they actually want him to win - there seem to be few illusions about the Supernova band and its members. However, when you get a small nation like ours - pop. 300,000 if you’ve just joined us - and one of our countrymen is 'making it' [attach to the term what you will] out there in the big, bad world... the sense of nationalistic pride is palpable.

This evening, the Kastljós programme had an interview with one of Magni's most devoted followers - a 99-year-old man who spoke so eloquently and with such absolute sincerity about his wonderment at the Supernova circus that I have rarely seen anything so delightful. In his view - and in the view of many others - our Magni has conducted himself in an exceptionally gentlemanlike manner. A phrase you hear thrown around a lot is hann hefur verið sjálfum sér, fjölskyldu og þjóð til sóma - which effectively means "he has brought honor to himself, his family and his nation." Putting that sentence under the microscope, I can see how primitive we still are when it comes down to it. We're a tribe. We value honor. It's kind of nice.

Other amazing ways in which the Icelandic nation is showing its solidarity:

• What happened last week, of course, when there was a massive campaign to urge people to stay up and vote, to keep Magni out of the bottom three. I have no figures, but there were a lot of people who either got up or stayed up to cast their votes for Magni in the middle of the night. It worked - he was the only one of the six contestants who was never at risk of being eliminated.
• One of the oil companies here in Iceland lowered the price of gas for a limited time last week to celebrate Magni's success.
• The SPRON savings bank gave Magni's fiancée ISK 500,000 [USD 7,260] last week to celebrate his success on the show. If he stays in tonight they will give her [them] another ISK 500,000 and another ISK 500,000 if he wins. This came after reports trickled out that he was getting paid very little for being on the show and his family's finances were suffering. After all, the man has a small baby to support.
• Tonight there will be a special 'warmup' programme before the Supernova broadcast to whip up excitement beforehand - one of the highlights will be a clip from when Silvía Nótt went to visit the Supernova mansion in LA recently. That's right: they unleashed old Silvía on the poor unsuspecting Supernova contestants [apparently she told Lukas - the guy with all the makeup - that is was amazing he'd got so far considering that he is, um, developmentally challenged] so We Shall See. Not that I'm going to stay up and watch it, though. Probably. Not. I'll probably just wake up at 4am like last time and fire off a few votes before fading off into dreamland again.

AND IS THE WEATHER MAGNI-FICENT?
Nah. Kind of wet and cold. Definitely getting colder now. The Icelandic sweater even came out of the closet today. And for dinner there was no other option but traditional Icelandic meat soup. All because we're caught up in Supernovanationalisticfever, or something. Light winds, clouds lifting overnight, temps currently 9°C. The sun came up at 06.21 and set at 20.30.

Wake up, vote for Magni!

Well, the Icelandic nation is currently showing the sort of solidarity normally reserved for volcanic eruptions, avalanches, earthquakes, or some other calamity. The cause? Our Magni is one of six contestants left in rockstarsupernova, and the last two weeks he has been in the bottom three [but managed to avoid the axe]. So over the last week, word has spread like wildfire and practically everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to ensure that Magni gets the greatest amount of votes possible from us - his tribe back in Niceland.

First, an email made the rounds, urging everyone to stay up and vote after the next show. You see, the problem is that the Supernovarockstar show is broadcast here live in the middle of the night, and you can only vote between 2 and 6 am our time. To make matters worse, the show has recently been moved back, so a lot of those Icelanders that were staying up to watch and vote have now opted in favour of a proper nights' sleep. All of which is bad news for our Magni, as witnessed by his recent bottom-three results.

But now - banding together as only the Icelanders can [okay, maybe other people can too] - we have a) Iceland Telecom and Skjár 1 [which brodcasts the show] waiving their share of the profits from SMS messages, in order to encourage people to vote b) Og Vodafone waiving their profits as well, in order to encourage people to vote c) all three taking out large advertisements in all the major papers, with the message 'Magni needs you' or some variation thereof d) a school in Egilsstadir, east Iceland [near where Magni is from] giving their students the first period off tomorrow morning to encourage them to stay up and vote. And probably some other things that I either haven't heard about or have forgotten.

So YT, not one to turn her back on family at a time like this, has already programmed her vote into the cell and plans to wake between 2 and 6 am and fire off as many SMS missives as she can before being wrestled down by sleep once more. Go Magni!

NASTYNASTYNASTY WEATHER
The worst - strong winds from the north. Seriously, I don't think there is any weather I dislike more than this. It's so frigging cold and my neck instantly starts hurting from my whiplash injury [that cold really gets to your bare skin no matter how tightly you bundle] and I turn grumpy because I crave fresh air but don't want to go outside. To make matters worse, our microwave died last night so I can't even heat up that rice bag thingy that I like to put on my neck for heat. Boo-hoo, woe is me. But I shall now shutup about my predicament and give you temps: a mere 7°C and a heckuvalotless with windchill and the sun came up at 6am sharp and set at 20.55.

[PS thank you thank you for the comments and emails of support after yesterday's post. When bad energy like that enters your life, it is so crucial to have positive vibes and kind words with which to meet it. I got that in spades. Thank you.]

A bunch of incoherent ramblings about rockstarsupernova

* I think Magni should come home. I don’t like the company he’s keeping.
* In the last episode, the show’s producers sent in vipers in the form of ‘journalists’ whose main purpose is clearly to poison all the contestants against each other, so we the voyeuristic public can see some scandalous footage. Then they act all appalled when people start stabbing each other in the back. Hypocrites.
* Somebody should send in a gigolo so that miserable Storm Last [oops – I meant to write Large… Freudian slip!]… so that miserable Storm Large can get laid.
If that miserable Storm Large gets laid maybe she’ll stop jumping Magni by the poolside, straddling him, and thrusting her tits into his face.
* … Or hanging around him every spare minute. Or running after him, panting.
* I feel seriously sorry for Magni’s girlfriend. Seriously seriously. In fact, I am deeply concerned. I mean, if the only communication I had with my man was through watching him on television, and every time I watched him on television I saw that miserable Storm Large running after him and thrusting her tits into his face, I think I would seriously lose it. Only I couldn’t lose it to his face because he would be caught up in some weird psychotic television reality show and could very well be screwing that miserable Storm Large every night for all I knew and might well have changed irrevocably so I wouldn’t even know him when he came home. What a wretched situation.
* I think he keeps landing in the bottom three now [two weeks in a row] because the show has been moved back an hour so that means it finishes at 3am here in Niceland and people just can’t stay up that late to vote. [But boy did he kick ass with that Jimi Hendrix’s Fire!]
* I think the most apt description I’ve heard of anybody in a long time was when a reviewer in Morgunblaðið called Ryan Star ‘það smeðjulega illfygli’ which loosely translated means ‘that pandering villain’ – only slimier. I couldn’t watch the show last night without thinking of that and laughing every time I saw him. That said, he delivered a pretty good performance of his own song. I just can’t stand how he fawns and panders to those who hold his fate in their hands. And that iniquitous look in his eyes. Nauseating.
* What marketing genius created the ads for Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Iceland? KFC has been sponsoring Supernovarockstar, and amidst tantalizing footage of deep-fried breaded chicken pieces or ‘pork burgers’ [gross] being tossed around, the jingle ‘Nothing but a heartache every day!’ plays unrelentingly in the background. I mean – Hello!!

And a bunch of other things that I’m too tired to articulate right now. The weather was ok I think. I spent most of it cooped up, working. Managed a run before noon, though, at which time there was drizzle. But it cleared up. I think. Right now we have 11°C and sunrise happened at 05.45, sunset at 21.13. Forecast for light winds and some cloud and blahblah.

Supernovarockstarfever

So the Icelandic nation is holding its collective breath, now that our man Magni is among the top eight finalists in Rock Star Supernova. Because as you may know, the victory of one Icelander is a victory for the entire nation [or something]. Never mind that the show is about as manufactured, commercialized and prone to emotional pornography as any ‘reality’ TV show can get, despite the raunchy bad-boy image of the Supernova rockers [the Icelanders have a name for them, gúmmítöffarar, or ‘rubber tough guys’, which I think is totally apt]. In fact, most people that now sit glued to their TV sets twice a week would probably never give the show a second glance if it weren’t for Magni’s stellar turns. Who knew we had such talent in our midst?

For those that don’t know, Rock Star Supernova revolves around a band [Supernova] that is looking for a frontman- or woman. [Evidently there was an earlier version of this, where INXS looked for a frontman – but of course nobody over here watched it because there was no Icelander competing.] The show is like a combination Idol-Big Brother, meaning that the contestants live in this [lavish] mansion somewhere in LA and are not allowed to leave the house. While there they are given tasks like writing songs etc. and are constantly under surveillance, the footage of which is edited and broadcast during the show. Once a week, they take to the stage to perform covers of various songs chosen by the band. There are two broadcasts a week on successive evenings [Tuesdays and Wednesdays local time in America – it’s shown live here in the middle of the night, and repeated later that evening]. During the first one there’s the usual footage of comments by the contestants about, er… mostly each other, and then there are the performances, followed by the judges’ commentary. After the show the polls are open for four hours [unfortunately for Iceland, because most people are asleep at that time] and – hear this – you can vote for your favourite contestant online.

The subsequent evening is the elimination round. The show starts by the judges asking one of the performers from the previous evening to do an encore of a performance they thought was outstanding. [Magni has been selected twice – I’m not sure if anyone else has been.] It is then revealed which of the contestants were in the bottom three of the voting. Those three then perform again and when that’s over, one of them is sent home. Last time, surprisingly, two contestants were sent home.

But back to our man Magni. He’s just acing it. I mean, there are some talented performers on that show and I’m not going to say he’s head and shoulders above the rest – that would be pushing it – but I’m pretty confident he’s going to be in the top three, and he may very well win. The judges seem to like him pretty well; comments like ‘you continue to raise the bar for this competition’ and ‘talent through and through’ certainly make the little Icelandic heart swell with nationalistic pride. His performance on the last show, for instance, an acoustic version of Dolphin’s Cry, was awesome – he was asked to repeat it the following night, with a band.

In my opinion, the thing that makes Magni unique among the contestants is that he never gets ahead of himself. While other contestants turn proverbial somersaults in order to impress, he simply gets up there and delivers, with intensity and grace. He’s a natural talent, has a lot of experience [fronts a band here in Iceland called Á móti sól] and it all seems to come to him without any effort. Whether he’d be the right frontman for this particular band – or whether he would even want to be – is another question… Magni seems to have no illusions about anything taking place over there, as witnessed by a recent interview in which he shoots from the hip [I will not repeat what he said because I’d be afraid it would jeopardize his chances – suffice it to say that the man has a good head on his shoulders and both eyes wide open]. However, I think this is a great showcase for his talent and I know I’m not alone in believing that he deserves every ounce of success he can get out of this.

Incidentally, news is filtering down here in Iceland that tonight’s show is going to be remarkable for some particular reason [it’s already been filmed]. Don’t know any more than that, but I’ll be sure to let you know – that is, if you don’t watch it yourself [and if you do, be sure to vote!].

AND TODAY’S SUPERNOVA WEATHER IS…
Clear skies, gorgeous sunshine but alas – winds from the north. Always a killer for our YT, on account of the whiplash injury that gets severely exacerbated in this kind of weather. Boo. Current temps are 15°C and sunrise was at 05.18, sunset due for 21.44.

Fame to claim

Well, the Iceland Weather Report is nothing if not prescient, as I've said before.

Case in point: remember a few days ago when I couldn't decide what to blog about and I mentioned Magni of Rockstarsupernova fame [who the esteemed [sic] Tommy Lee calls "Magni-ficent" heheheh snort] and I referred to said Magni as "our very own" Magni?

Remember that??

Well, according to Íslendingabók*, Magni and our very own YT are actually third cousins.

Dumdum.

[*Íslendingabók is a genealogical database that allows any Icelander to instantly trace his or her family tree back eight or nine generations, making it very easy to know who your cousins are. Except of course if you have been wrongly fathered, in which case it would all be a big ruse and sadly rumour has it that this is more common than people know here in Niceland - though I wouldn't know. Anyway - Íslendingabók is possibly the greatest PR stunt ever invented in the history of the world, as it was created by a company called DeCode Genetics, which was easily the most unpopular company in Iceland a few years back, because they were going to use Icelanders' genealogical information to make zillions of dollars and a few other reasons as well that I won't go into now. But then they had the brilliant idea to use the genealogical information to open the Íslendingabók so everyone could trace his or her family tree and know who their cousins were as long as they were not wrongly fathered, as well as make a gazillion bucks for themselves. And suddenly everyone forgot about the reasons they disliked DeCode because they were totally in awe of the Íslendingabók and swore they would love DeCode forevermore.]

But I digress: I just wanted to let you know that you can request my autograph now via a self-addressed, stamped envelope. It's going to be worth a lot when old Magni wins Rockstarsupernova, mark my words.

SO HOW PRESCIENT ARE WE ABOUT THE WEATHER, HM?
Whell, I predict it's going to be sunny and warm tomorrow, because everyone has to go back to work. This weekend has been rainy and a bit cold with a hint of fall in the air; currently it's 11°C and the sun came up at 04.53 and set at 22.12.