It’s good to be gone but it sure is better coming home. I hope you didn’t shed too many tears at my absence but now i’m rested, restored and ready to let you know about the things that make our little corner of the world worth living in… and coming back to.
Give my love to the city, Ron

A September season of films by Hong Kong director Tony Leung  begins this Thursday at Xenix. It is rare in Zurich to find a foreign language film with English subtitles. It’s rarer still when that film is as beautiful and poetic as In the Mood for Love. For the weekend of 10-12 September, my favourite film of his will be subtitled with my favourite language! Was this done to celebrate my return? I like to think so.
2 - 22 September, Xenix

Every so often a little piece of Zurich’s soul will drift away, and once Razzia closes it’s doors for the final time, the Seefeld neighbourhood will be losing one of the city’s more colourful characters. To mark this passing, KUSS magazine will present Razzia’s own history via the people who were part it. With excerpts of the magazine also being shown inside Razzia, the walls will tell you their own story.
Thursday 8 pm, Razzia

The Erismannhof-Fest is a true neighbourhood festival that is run and organised by a band of local, happy helpers and is sponsorship free. If this alone doesn’t get you interested, there is also live music in the evenings, a bar and grill and, on Saturday afternoon, an ice cream bar for the kids. And when I say kids I, of course, mean everyone!
Friday/Saturday 2 pm, Erismannhof

The Viadukt has transformed Kreis 5 and now they are celebrating the opening of the first covered market in Zurich. It looks as if the market will be offering quality foods and wines, and so this invitation to the opening, with their offer of food and drink, as well as live music including The Young Gods, should definitely be looked into.
Saturday 10 am, Im Viadukt

From Monday to Saturday Zurich will host its first international radio festival. Each day different cities present their shows and sounds at Papiersaal such as East Village Radio NYC, CJLO Montreal, Dinamo Istanbul, Deep Mix Moskau and, and, and. This trip around the world takes place at Papiersaal at Sihlcity. You can also listen to it at home FM 88.2 MHz / FM 95.7 MHz. I have two pairs of festival passes to give away.
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Monday to Saturday 5 pm, Papiersaal

Let’s play again is the motto of this year’s Fantoche animation film festival in Baden. And yes, it’s worth leaving the city for. As usual there are discussions, exhibitions, workshops and many short films to see and hear. In one of them you might even spot a person you know: in a live-action version of Pac-Man, where 120 locals replaced the pixels of the computer game. On youtube you find a film where Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond West has done the same with Tetris. I have three pairs of tickets to give away.

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Tuesday to Sunday, all around Baden

The entire city seems to be under constructions. Wherever you go you have to circle around large machines and holes in the road. The city council is aware that people’s nerves are wearing thin. Therefore they organised an open-construction-site-day. This doesn’t mean that they remove all the barriers but around Escher-Wyss-Platz you can go and view what’s actually happening with the new tram line, Hardbrücke and Pfingstweidstrasse. Professionals answer all questions and if you fancy you can even crawl into the hollow space of the bridge. Also, this Saturday marks the opening day for the pedestrian and cycle bridge over Pfingstweidstrasse.

Divine became Sportsmen Club for the World Cup and now became Gartenhof – for the moment. It’s an interim locale but I don’t know for how long. The restaurant with its beautiful terrace still sports some of the marks from the football games, otherwise the interior is similar to how Divine used to be, just a bit more thrift shop style. The staff are friendly, the food good - though some remarked that the portions are a bit small. There are three different three-course-meals to choose from (fish, meat, vegetarian) for a set price of under 50 francs.

Gartenhofstrasse 1, 8004 Zürich

Due to the increased demand, travelling on a cargo ship is not as cheap anymore as is used to be in the good old times, but the recommendations for 5 cool cargo ship itineraries are still worth reading. London to Argentina anyone?

Get introduced to the dreamland of a bird, at least visually! There are some rather strange scenes like unicorns who seem to like each other a bit too much, but the video is good and the music of Hermanos Inglesos feat. MeMe's song Wonderland is of the sort 'mix an Electro beat, add a singer and ready is the song'. Listen!