"A Note on Icelandic Names: Icelanders always address each other using first names, since most people have a patronymic rather than a "proper surname" ending in -son for a son and -dottir for a daughter. People are listed by first names even in the telephone directory. Strange as it may sound to the English ear...some families do have traditional surnames, however, either derived directly from or else modelled on Danish, as a result of the colonial rule which lasted until early in the twentieth century..."
That explains why Bjork is Bjork, known simply as Bjork, with none of the affected simplicity aspired to by pop singers with only one name. A while back, I read an interview on Bjork, possibly in New York magazine in 2005 (according to my filial source of all things important). The author stated he was asked, every time the topic of his Bjork interview came up, "What's she really like?" Coincidentally, that's exactly what I would have asked the man. Bjork is from Reykjavik, Iceland (the smaller of the two islands near the North Pole - Greenland is the larger). Icelandic is from the Germanic group of Indo-European languages, to which English belongs. Everything I've learned about Iceland fascinates me - it's so different yet so familiar - excerpt above from "Jar City" illustrates this. Unfortunately, my entire Icelandic vocabulary is comprised of two words, "runtur" and "bjork." The Reykjavik runtur is the Friday evening "pub crawl."
Back to the question of "What is she really like?" to continue to ponder how do you define a person? What are they really like? Similarly, I wondered "What is this blog about?" four months ago. When creating your blog, you are asked to define what it's about, which I found untenable although I tried. Four months later, with archives, previous year entries and a blog silence on my part of six weeks, I have reached the "spinning" stage that so annoys me when I see it in others' blogs. "Oh wow, I haven't been on in such a long time" "oh wow drrrrrr" "Hi! Been really busy!" "drivels of nonsense" "totally must start writing again" "wow" ad nauseam making me understand the saying "Talk is silver but silence is golden." Oh, how true.
I'm feeling existential today: Why am I here? Why do I do this? Molly Wizenberg of the blog "Orangette" writes a journalist friend suggested writing a blog as it would hold her accountable, writing a blog would force her to sit down and write regularly, even when it felt difficult. It's the process, you see - one has ideas and without exercising with words, they fizzle. I have a file now of ideas I have started, some almost finished, a few only a few sentences or short paragraphs. Haven't many of us dreamed of writing something substantial and amazing but are stuck at the idea part, unable to get past the first few pages? I know I have - I have eight Christmas-themed science fiction stories, half-finished and a more ambitious book for which I was creating an artificial language and got bogged down. I never stop writing in my head, though.
To write consistently well requires the inexplicable technique of finding your voice. There was a great scene in "Martha Inc." in which Andy Stewart is telling his wife that she "just has to find her voice" and write the copy to accompany the recipes. A scene is devoted to her NOT finding this voice, trying to write, ripping pages from the typewriter and then one day she begins to write in her patented home style cozy family shtick which has been disproved in so many ways. However, it's a great example of how this voice thing works.
Have you made New Year's resolutions? That's a topic hotly debated and dismissed by many. I've found I can succeed with mine when I start before the New Year, as I did several years ago when I chose to start running again, and I began on December 27th. By New Year's Day I'd already been running every night for five days, almost a week, and it was "easy" (ha ha ha) to continue. This year I've resolved to continue my gym membership, to eat one serving each of a cooked vegetable (fruit is easy to remember to eat) and a "hard-core" protein (my term for meat), to drink more water and to finish one project each week. These are all "should do" things which are much easier than "don't do" resolutions. Rewards instead of punishments?
That pretty much brings us up to date. I'd like to comment, also, that Orangette has a recipe for salted chocolate cookies which looks amazing (the Jan.11, 2012 post) and I'm still unclear about the correct pronunciation of "Bjork." I'm convinced the vowel is somewhere in between e and o (oe) and is a sound peculiar to Scandinavian languages. Oh, if only Bjork would just call me and clarify this small point!
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