The Ambassador of Iceland

I love Björk. I think I should throw that out there first. She is so badass, and Lady Gaga is just smalltime news compared to Björk and her legacy. Björk will change your life. And because she is so heady and life-changing, you really have to be in the mood and mentally prepared for it. She is playing in New York for a few weeks, which made me think about it. I got to see her at the Coachella Music Festival when I went in 2002 and I wish I would have appreciated it more. (Her tickets now are about $75, before all those godawful fees). I was listening to her music all this weekend and getting chills. I CANNOT stop listening to her song Bachelorette, although the best song for starters is Play Dead.

Listening to her music takes me right back to my apartment in France. When I discovered the stereo system in the living room/atelier, I also came across my landlady's vast collection of Björk albums. I remember listening to those on full volume, sipping tea and standing on the tiny balcony overlooking the busy street below and all the rooftops of the city, or simply sitting on a couch with a cat in my lap with the doors open for a breeze.


(It was such a pain to move that ladder out of the way because the doors opened in)

The mirrored French doors behind my desk are the same behind the couch in the atelier. The view was basically the same.

All the Björk music I have now is from the afternoons I spent burning all of the CD's I stumbled across in our apartment. That, and most of my Tori Amos collection, although I still had a lot of Tori Amos from my days in dance classes.


There used to be a picture out there on the Interwebs of a swan wearing Björk (yes you read that right, and if you didn't get it, it wasn't meant for you), but I suppose in a way, this polar bear is also wearing her, so win-win. And who doesn't like her? I mean, even if you don't like her music, how can you hate someone so completely off their rocker? Did you know she BIT a paparazzi after they took a picture of her son?! You have to at least be interested in her. And let us be honest: she put Reykjavik on the map. She sings in her song Hunter "I thought I could organize freedom... how Scandinavian of me." Maybe she shouldn't hold political office, but she would make a great goodwill ambassador.