Yes! It's my first agenda of 2026 so we have a bit of food, a bit of music and bit of comedy and some ballons. 

Thursday: A Silent Movie With A Live Soundtrack

Friday: Comedy Kiss Chases Away The January Blues (Scroll ⬇️ for more details)

Fri & Sat: Mosh Your Way Into 2026

Saturday: The Big Balloon Blast Off

Monday: What Is Parmigiana? Find Out At Xenix Bar

Monday: The James Brown Experience Hits Volkshaus (Scroll ⬇️ for more details)

January is a pretty depressing time. The weather is cold and dismal, the credit card bill has just hit the mat and you daren’t go near the scales after the Christmas binge. So cheer yourselves up with some comedy. Comedy Kiss and Volkshaus, (who have just discovered that websites can use colour,) are presenting a line-up of three big-name comics from that curious bunch of islands that sits about 25 miles from Europe. Tomorrow’s show features Maisie Adam, (Pictured,) Irish veteran Andrew Maxwell as well as the award-winning newcomer Jacob Hawley.

Friday 8pm, Volkshaus, Staufacherstrasse 60, 8004

When you think of funk and soul, the name James Brown has to spring to mind. Sex Machine, Get Up Offa That Thing, I Feel Good… timeless classics. You might even call him the Godfather of Soul. Anyhoo, Monday brings the chance to experience the sounds, sights and yes, smells, (actually, probably not the last one,) of James Brown as The James Brown Experience hits the stage at Volkshaus. Get your dancing shoes on!

Monday 7:30pm, Volkshaus, Staufacherstrasse 60, 8004

Dry January, yes or no? For me, the jury is still out. I prefer to have a dry month in spring so I am nice and svelte for the summer, but each to their own. One thing is for sure: the trend is taking off and it seems like it is here to stay. This year, to avoid a first day of 2026 with a dry mouth, nausea and the feeling that someone is trying to force sausage meat behind my eyes, I opted to drink alcohol-free cocktails on New Year’s Eve. Here are my Mocktail tips to help you through Dry January.

It turns out that tram and bus times are not the only thing changing in the city. Some of you Ronsters may have noticed enormous piles of cardboard growing in the city streets, and this is due to a change in the scheduling of recycling. Stadt Zürich even sent me this lovely flyer, (pictured,) which I utterly ignored until I had to take out the cardboard and realised I had the wrong day. There are actually some pretty radical and useful changes - for example, (at least for me,) cardboard collection becomes weekly and now takes place on a Friday rather than alternating Tuesdays. The long and short of it, head over to their website and check when recycling will happen for your postcode - it will have changed!

From 2026 onwards, there will be no more comics in the newsletter. Yes, I know, change can be unsettling, but in their place comes «Eye Candy», a new section for everything that delights the eyes. Photography, design, illustration, visual playfulness. Less bang crash wallop, more oooh aaah wow. We are kicking things off with images by Nicolaus Armani, whose work I am about to introduce to you. I asked him a few questions about his art, his inspiration and more.