Newman has enjoyed good reviews by the British media, including music magazine Losing Today calling “Change My Name,” “In a word – stunning. [...] Not wishing to jump the gun by saying so early in the year the best single of 2008 that would of course be a churlish thing of folly that said though certainly without doubt the best single to have graced these pages since [...] the tail end of last year.”
To promote her new single, Newman and her band played two concerts in Oxford and London last weekend. The Oxford concert was recorded for radio broadcast. “Change My Name” and “Return To Me” are being played regularly on European radio stations.
A new video to “Return To Me” was recently premiered. It is a digital cartoon written and directed by Icelandic animators Marta María and Kristín Elva.
Source: www.icelandreview.com
Eliza @ NASA @ Airwaves 2007 (Photographs by Wim Van Hooste)
Cool as in Z
Have you ever noticed that whenever people want something to look extra cool they use a Z instead of an S? Like the Barbie-like Bratz dolls or virtual Britpop band Gorillaz ?
In Iceland they do it too. Every day when I walk to the gym a sign on the corner of Borgartún and Kringlumýrarbraut gets on my nerves. It reads “Boozt Bar” and refers to a place where people can order skyr shakes. Skyr shakes are essentially a good thing, delicious yet healthy, low in fat, rich in vitamins and just the right thing to consume after working out. But I never buy them. I am immensely irritated by the fact that something as uniquely Icelandic as skyr is being presented with Anglo-Saxon slang, complete with the silly Z.
Apparently adding a Z to your name is a good way to hype-up your image. At least that’s what Elísa Geirsdóttir—who used to be the lead singer of Icelandic girl band Kolrassa Krókrídandi (Bellatrix)—must have been thinking when she suddenly became Elíza Newman. I guess she must have married a Newman and adopted his name, which is fine, but why the Z? It just sounds ridiculous. (No offense to IR’s Eliza Reid, whose name has always been spelled with a Z.)
The Icelandic alphabet doesn’t even have a Z, not anymore at least. The Z was considered to be unnecessary and complicating spelling and thus removed from the alphabet in the early 1970s. I’m not sure in which cases the Z was used exactly, but it had something to do with dental consonants, like in íslenzkur (“Icelandic”), verzla (“shop”) and beztur (“best”). These words are now spelled with an S.
Given names and surnames that were spelled with a Z due to foreign origins were exempt from this rule, e.g. Zóphanías and Bjartmarz (like in the name of former Minister of the Environment Jónína Bjartmarz).
The Z remained in the names of some places and institutions as well, which had been established before the non-Z rule was accepted, like the hot dog stand Baejarins beztu pylsur in central Reykjavík, open since 1937, and one of Reykjavík’s junior colleges Verzlunarskóli Íslands, short Verzló, founded in 1905. The band Hinn íslenzki Thursaflokkur, which was actually established in the late 1970s, after the Z had been abolished, also decided to honor old spelling regulations with their name.
Some writers refused adopting their styles to modern spelling and still stubbornly use the Z, including Morgunbladid journalist Hjörtur Gíslason who specializes in stories about the fishing industry. Take a look at the intro in his article about British-Icelandic JHS Fish products turning fish heads into valuable food.
With time the forbidden Z earned a certain status of cool; all the coolest kids go to Verzló for example. And now, whenever a brand-name needs a “boozt” the boring old S is replaced with a Z.
Maybe I should change my middle name to Zvala for über hip purposes? No need, really, since Svala (which is also a bird’s name) already means “cool.”
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