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Released three years ago, "Loners" ("Samotari") was a huge hit in the Czech Republic, particularly with the country's youth, who also bought the film's soundtrack in large numbers. The charismatic natural comic Jiri Machacek became a cult star for his portrayal of "Loners'" perpetually stoned Jakub. I asked him if the fame he experienced in the wake of the film's success had had a major impact on his life.

Czechs like to play. At least that's what comes to mind if you realise that within two weeks, Prague has hosted two independent exhibitions of puzzles and brainteasers. One is taking place this weekend in Chodov in the south of Prague and the other fair was held last week in the gothic building Dum Panu z Kunstatu in the historic Old Town. The organiser was Jaroslav Flejberk, a puzzle enthusiast and owner of the largest collection of puzzles in Central Europe. He explains why solving puzzles is such a popular pastime in this country.

In a café, just two numbers away from the Dum Panu z Kunstatu in Prague's Old Town, two publishing houses, Argo and Paseka, announced this week that their joint effort, that had lasted for seven years, has successfully come to a head. The two publishers decided to reprint one as yet unsurpassed work of Czech lexicography, the forty-tome Ottuv slovnik naucny or Otto's Encyclopaedia which was first published between 1888 and 1908. At the end of the 19th century, publisher Jan Otto drew together a team of leading Czech academics who compiled a monumental

In this week's Arts, Dita Asiedu invites you to the Prague Autumn International Music Festival and speaks to Meda Mladek, thanks to whom the Kampa Museum for Central European Modern Art was opened in Prague this week:

Over the last decade Prague's Centre for Contemporary Arts (www.fcca.cz) has played an important role on the city's cultural scene, especially in encouraging young Czech artists and in building dialogue between artists here in the Czech Republic and abroad. But the centre's future is far from certain. In "The Arts" this week David Vaughan visits the centre to find out more about its work, and to examine whether its days really are numbered.

Walking downstream along the Vltava River from the Prague district of Vysehrad towards the centre of the city, you cannot miss a unique historic building, just past the railway bridge, that is very much unlike any other buildings in the area. Sunken about two metres below the surrounding ground level, the two-storey gothic building was bought in the 16th century by the New Town of Prague to serve as a customs house for timber trade. The customs house "na Vytoni" is one of a handful of historic monuments of the long-disappeared district of Podskali.

In this week's Arts, Dita Asiedu looks at how the Terezin Memorial is faring one year after the devastating floods, invites you to a film festival in the town of terezin and an exhibition of photographs in Prague, and reports why Czech President Vaclav Klaus may have to wait longer than expected before moving into his office at Prague Castle:

The Irish rock group The Frames first played in the Czech Republic in 1996 and since then singer Glen Hansard has been a frequent visitor, both with and without the band. He included such unglamorous places as Namest nad Oslavou, Liberec and Uherske Hradiste on a recent solo tour, and he often stays in the south Moravian town of Valasske Mezirici, called Valmez for short. When I spoke to Glen Hansard after a recent concert in Prague I asked him what were his favourite things about the Czech Republic, and if his impressions had changed as he learned

In the middle of the Prague district of Smichov, just ten minutes away from the city centre, a new multifunctional art space called "Futura" opened recently, focusing on the presentation and promotion of both international and local contemporary fine art. When I visited it, it seemed like an oasis - cool and quiet in the bustling city scorched by a summer heat wave.

Hello and welcome to another Encore. Libor Pesek is one of the best known Czech conductors. A few weeks ago he celebrated his seventieth birthday - although, with his sheer energy and joie-de-vivre, you have the impression of a man a good ten years younger. In a career spanning nearly fifty years, he went from being trombonist in a jazz band, to a celebrated decade from 1987 to 1997 as chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Britain. For his work with the orchestra, he was made an honorary Knight of the British Empire, and he remains