Throughout the year Moods has been celebrating its jubilee season with musical highlights and at the end of November these celebrations come to a climax with „20 Years of Moods – The Festival“. From Thursday to Saturday, in Moods and the big Schiffbau Hall, various concerts will be staged demonstrating Moods musical spectrum. Including some local acts such as Fiona Daniel, Grand Pianoramax and Death by Chocolate. Here’s to a further 20 Years of Moods! Tickets between 15-75 francs
Thursday 8.30 pm, 10.30 pm & midnight, Friday 8.30 pm, 10 pm  & midnight, Saturday 2 pm, 8.30pm, 11 pm, Moods

Many of my Expat friends tell me that they find it difficult to meet Swiss people. Dorothy Yeung made a similar experience – her Swiss and international friends were badgering her to put them together in a nice social situation. So she set up LIP – Local International Party. The events always take place in unique locations with a twist of live music. This Saturday, there will be a LIP  at Schloss Sihlberg with the electric girl string quartet Escala and djs from Ibiza and Zurich - a mix of classical and house music. I have 2x2 tickets to give away for free, just send me an e-mail.
Saturday 7.30 pm, Schloss Sihlberg

Whenever I walk past Büro Discount at Zurlindenstrasse 226 I glance at their shop window but I don’t think I ever went inside. But that will change this Saturday as the platform for graphic design celebrates its tenth anniversary in Zurich (twenty in Bern!). If you visit the birthday kid you’ll find a large selection of posters, books, shirts, urban toys and much more to browse through and an exhibition with works by thirty Swiss artists. If you don’t have time on Saturday, the exhibition is taking place until 20th January. And ask to get added to their address list, as they regularly host exhibitions by national and international designers and artists.
Saturday 6 pm, Büro Discount

The Basislager in Zurich Altstetten is a good example for how an urban creative  network can  work. On a brownfield site, 60 ateliers for various art genres were installed in mobile containers. In the Basislager, the designers and artists are able to work for themselves but also to join forces or to exchange ideas. This Sunday, Basislager holds an opening party where you’re able to visit the ateliers, the market, concerts and socialise. If you like the idea and if you believe that artistic performers deserve to get paid, you can support the opening party on the crowd funding platform 100 days.
Sunday from noon, Basislager

Do you remember detective Beatrice Stubbs? Author JJ Marsh – who I talked to in summer - introduced her in her Zurich-based debut “Behind Closed Doors”. Now Beatrice is back, and discovers in the second of the series “Raw Material” the darker side of human nature. Which might be reason why it doesn’t take place in Zurich this time. Joke aside, I look forward to our reencounter and if you feel the same the book launch takes place on Sunday at Orell Füssli The English Bookshop with JJ Marsh present.
Sunday 4-5.30 pm, The English Bookshop

Do I need to introduce John Mavall? Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor and many more played in his Band The Bluesbreakers. The line-ups of his bald read in the 60s and 70s like a Who is Who of rock music. John kept his energy and – almost eighty – is still ready to rock. He comes to Zurich this Wednesday to Volkshaus. But you have to hurry, there are just a few tickets left to see the blues legend. Tickets between 50-85 francs
Wednesday 8 pm, Volkshaus

Weibian is a Japanese/Chinese restaurant at Weststrasse, corner Kalkbreitestrasse. I pass it often as I live nearby and it looks like they’re lacking guests. And I don’t understand why. I had a take-away once and ate there twice. Each time the lovely staff made me feel like coming home, wrapped in a warm embrace (not literally), and the food tasted fresh and spicy. The chef is very flexible if you want to alter a dish and the prices are extremely good value. Therefore, worth a suggestion I think.
Restaurant Weibian, Weststrasse 146.  Monday to Thursday, 10.30 am to 10 pm, Friday & Saturday, 11 am to 11 pm

Cycling through town after dark – I always feel lucky when I arrive unharmed. So here some suggestions to pimp up your bike to make yourself more visible. iFlash: It’s a standard bike light (white for the front, red for the back) but it’s installed at the wheel. No batteries needed as a turning (when you cycle) magnet produces an electric impulse. So much better than the bike lights that you can attach and take off, that I always forget at home or that run out of battery when I need them. Approx. 50 francs. Tire Spax: A bit fancier is the glowing valve cover that lights up whenever the wheel moves. The battery should last for 100 hours. Approx. 20 francs. Pedalite: Now we get closer to true disco illumination. The light at the pedals streams light to the front, the side and to the back in white, red and yellow. Approx. 100 francs. Safety light: My favourite are the reflecting wheels, the illuminate the dark and make the world brighter in six different colours. Have a safe journey!

In social networks, every statement looks the same. But there are some things that need to be said with emphasis. Boldomatic is an app who helps you with that, developed by some expat guys living in Zurich. This app, in a simple design, helps you to give your words more weight and to generate more attention in your online-community. Here you can download the app for free