That nasty bitch at the door sometimes metamorphoses into a bitchy guy who hates foreigners, but truth be said, I have never had any trouble getting into the Sirkus (and I am not Icelandic.) The first time I came here, it was the height of the Midnight Sun season in June 2006. I was so drunk I can barely remember what happened, but I do recall talking to some Icelandic guys about cocaine. I professed my love for Iceland in loud and vulgar terms. We didn't get any coke in the end, but we did end up at some guy's house where there was a poster of the Beatles on the living room wall, and red soap in the bathroom. A couple of girls escorted me home. When I woke up back at the youth hostel around noon the next day, I thought to myself: "Man, you've cracked it! You've penetrated the Icelandic social scene!" But it was only the first cracks of many, and many more are coming I hope!

The Sirkus is intimately tied up and inextricably entangled in the evolution of Icelandic rock music. Gus Gus have played live there amongst all the painted palm trees and simulated tropicana. The bar was recently featured in the video clip of Bjork's song Triumph of a Heart. There is some graffiti about the transcendent power of music in the men's toilet (note: door unlockable.) The second time I came here, I chatted to a member of the band Kimono, and I got the feeling that were a lot of other rockers in the room (as circumstances would have it, we were watching the World Cup!) Sirkus has also played host to some of Iceland's notable DJ's including DJ Thor, DJ Lazer, Einar, Biggi Veira, and Herb Legowitz, the winner of the recent homocentric Tom Selleck Moustache Competition.

Word is that the Sirkus is slated for destruction by the city authorities -- and I did notice, when I was upstairs with the Kimono crew and the other rockers, just how much the building did shake when someone slammed a door downstairs. i would hate to be in this place when an earthquake struck, which as my Kimono buddy said, happens fairly regularly in Iceland. I live in Japan (for the moment) so I am used to earthquakes. I am also used to living in shakey unsafe buildings -- which means the Sirkus at Reykjavik suits me to a tea!