The lights go out and the ubiquitous chatter stops. The last man in line walks away from the bar with a shot glass. The whole room is momentarily speechless before the dark bass begins to rumble. Elektrokohle fills the Reading Room with their dark melodies, joined by the frontman's insistent voice. "We're sorry we're late, but we are from Berlin," comes the apology that aptly describes the following performance, which seems to transport us to a backwater Berlin club. On the same unforgettable evening, Mr. Pink and The Bad Thoughts launched their new album, and Rány tela and others also played.

We won't be taking you to Berlin in May, but we invite you to come along anyway. Jack Kerouac's novels The Vision of Gerard and Maggie Cassidy have received new Czech translations, which will be christened by Argo on 9 May. The next day, Canada's Eamon McGrath and Belgium's Grégoire Fray will also arrive here as part of their European tour, where they will present their joint EP Roaming. You can also look forward to David Vávra, who this time will talk about his own architectural projects instead of Noisy Tracks, on 16 May. The end of the month will belong to the singer-songwriter Alen and David Pomahač in a joint concert on 25 May, and the following weekend to the neighbourhood festivities as part of the Žižkovskie Mezidvorky festival, for which we and our fellow Krenovka residents are preparing a varied music-dance-art programme (and if that's not enough, there will be food too).