Icelandic that you can understand.
A short sketch from the Fóstbræður tv series, that was popular in Iceland in the late 90s. The customer by the way is Jón Gnarr, the current mayor of Reykjavík.
(Source: icelandiclanguage)
Reykjavik Mayor, Jón Gnarr, encourages the Mayor of Moscow to rethink his ban on Gay Pride.
Jón Gnarr was noticed by international media when he participated in drag at Reykjavík’s Gay Pride festival. Since then he’s been quite active fighting for LGBT rights as well as other human rights campaigns. Today he published this open letter to Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of Moscow. As the Mayor of a city in cooperation with Moscow, he encourages Sergey to rethink his ban on Gay Pride in the city and points to the very positive experience Reykjavik has had with the festival.
By the way, Jón is doing an AMA on Reddit right now.
I’ve posted plenty of things about Reykjavik’s mayor, Jón Gnarr, before (he’s very postable). This post sums up his character quite well.
Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavik who keeps surprising, has been working on his beard lately to be able to participate in Comic Con as Obi-Wan Kenobi. He tried out his costume at the opening of the Reykjavik International Film Festival.
(Source: unahi, via annaslagathor)
Reykjavik Mayor wants the right to wed gays
Iceland has received a lot of attention from the world’s gay and lesbian community for several reasons. In 2010, with a unanimous parliament vote, Iceland was one of the first countries to fully legalize same-sex marriage. Registered partnerships had been allowed for some time before that. Iceland’s prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the world’s first openly lesbian head of government, was one of the first to marry under the new law.
However, Reykjavík’s mayor has received a lot of attention from the gay community despite not being gay. Jón Gnarr opened the Reykjavík gay pride festival last year in drag.
Following this stunt, Jón has repeatedly received requests from gay men asking him to wed them. Unfortunately he has had to deny them all, since mayors in Iceland have no such right. Currently it is only religious leaders, heads of police and captains at sea which have the right to wed couples.
He is now advocating for the law to be changed so that mayors and perhaps others can also do the service. He would then be happy to fulfill these wishes.
Reykjavík mayor signs an agreement on nothing
As you might have noticed, Reykjavík’s mayor is not your average cup of tea. Jón Gnarr met with the Pirate Party from Berlin in the famous Höfði building where Gorbotsjov and Reagan signed the treaty that ended the Cold War. However this time around, they signed a treaty on “nothing”.
Their rationale for this was that politicians are always signing agreements on this and that but in a year’s time they’ve probably forgotten what it was about and done nothing. Christopher from the Pirate Party found this new approach a lot more honest.
I don’t know if you find this funny or offensive, but this is a sketch from the Tvíhöfði radio show which was very popular in Iceland a few years back. The guy on the right in the picture and the one who portrays the German is Jón Gnarr, they mayor of Reykjavík.
(Source: minreykjavik)
Happy Góðan daginn daginn
Jón Gnarr, Reykjavík’s mayor, has published a video to celebrate the Góðan daginn daginn, or in English, Good day day. Jón started this day last year to encourage people to say good day to as many as possible and generally be more friendly. Last year he published another video.
Reykjavík’s Mayor presents Human Rights Road
In celebration of Amnesty International’s 50 year birthday, Reykjavík’s very odd mayor, Jón Gnarr, renames Laugavegur, Reykjavík’s main shopping street Mannréttindavegur (Human Rights Road), (is it ok to use so many commas in a, uhm, sentence?). The name change is only for a few days, since it is, well our best known street and the name has historical references. Laugavegur actually means, Bath Road or Washing Road, as it leads from downtown to the old geothermal washing streams of Laugardalur.
If you are interested in Reykjavík’s rather odd mayor, Jón Gnarr, check out this post from “Iceland that wants to be your friend”. Check out in particular his rather controversial speech at the Reykjavík Fashion Festival.
Halló.
This is a picture of one of my people, taken by my friends at the Reykjavík Grapevine.
He is called Jón Gnarr.
He used to be a pönk, but now he is the mayor of my Reykjavík. (That is as it should be.)
When some humans who like to wear nice clothes met there a few days ago to look at nice clothes, he told them a story.
My friend Capra, who writes good letters, also sent a letter to him. (She likes to send letters to other humans.) If you are not very busy, you can read it.
Bless bless,
- Iceland
I’ve posted before about Jón Gnarr, the rather odd mayor of Reykjavík. His recent refusal to accept a visit of the German Navy captain, this video and a brief summary of his campaign.
Tonight a documentary about him, named Gnarr, will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. This seems to be making headlines around the world as the “odd amusing story”. Featured on NBC, Calgary Herald, L Magazine, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times has a video interview with Jón.
Mayor of Reykjavík does not accept a visit by the German Navy
The German Navy is stopping by in Reykjavík for a few days. In some ways this is quite good, since their rescue helicopter will serve as a backup for the Icelandic Coast Guard while one of their two rescue helicopters is in maintenance. However the mayor of Reykjavík, Jón Gnarr, will not accept visits from the navy commanders. According to Vísir, this is the first time ever that a mayor denies visits of the German Navy.
Jón Gnarr said “Icelanders should show in action, that we are a country without a military. We should encourage peace and protest against wars between one another.” Asked whether his decision is not a sign of disrespect he said: “I do not see this as disrespect to these people that are here on visit. I simply do not want to have anything to do with war mongering. It is my honest opinion that Reykjavík should be the city of peace.”
Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavík and leader of the “Best Party” is no normal mayor as you may have read in previous posts.
The mayor of Reykjavík is not your average mayor. His name is Jón Gnarr and he has been one of Iceland’s favorite comedians. After some troubled times in city hall Jón formed Besti flokkurinn (The Best Party) and ran for mayor. Despite promising to give easy high paying jobs to all of his friends, buying a polar bear for the Reykjavík petting zoo and breaking all of his promises he succeeded with a large margin.
(Source: dagdraumar)
The guy on the right is Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavík, leader of the Best Party and popular comedian. After several years of unpopular mayors in Reykjavík Jón Gnarr announced on his comedy radio show that he would run as mayor. His campaign promises included, granting easy and well paying jobs to his friends, getting a polar bear for the Reykjavík petting zoo, drug free parliament by 2020, tollbooths on the borders of neighboring Seltjarnarnarnes and several other rather crazy ideas.
He got lots of attention not long ago when he got a tattoo with the insignia of Reykjavík on his arm. About a week later he was hospitalized while travelling in Sweden because of infections in his arm.
During the Gay Pride festival in Reykjavík, Jón made the world news by appearing in full drag.
He is of course very controversial in Iceland but he was elected with more support than any of the established parties have managed to achieve in the past few years and now after several months in office he remains somewhat popular. What people like about him is that he never avoids questions or tries to talk around subjects. He simply states his view or frankly says that he doesn’t have a clue.
