VIDEO [click]
Host performer: Chris Tanasescu
Guest performers: Jerome Rothenberg, Ilya Kaminsky
Host of the series: Seretta Martin
Mar 28, 2011
Jerome Rothenberg live @ Barnes and Noble (San Diego)
VIDEO [click]
Host performer: Chris Tanasescu
Guest performers: Jerome Rothenberg, Ilya Kaminsky
Host of the series: Seretta Martin
Mar 21, 2011
Mar 12, 2011
San Francisco City Break on A Budget
by Raluca Tanasescu
I don’t know if there are any onomatopoeic words in English or Romanian or in any other language on earth to describe the sounds sea lions or seals make. However, it is those sounds that come back buzzing through my memories whenever I think of San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Oh, and the rattling of the cable cars, running up and down the crooked streets. I finally got to see TchaTchafiko. It's the way my little brother and I used to pronounce the name of the city whenever we watched and talked about the fashionable Streets of San Francisco TV series, back in early 90s.
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| San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge |
At first, we thought of using money more wisely than spending it on a 3-day city break in the Bay Area of California towards the end of our 7-month stay in the US. But we could not resist it – our travel impetus and having too much Southern California got us on the first Amtrak Pacific Surfliner we could book seats for online. A good idea, as long as all trains are equipped with outlets for laptops and offer café cars and ample room for legs – more than most business class areas in any posh airline. But trains stop in Goleta and those who need to continue the trip up north, to San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco, need to take an Amtrak bus that serves the area.
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| Sunrise at Pier 39 |
In the morning
“This is a smoking free bus, said Rodney at the beginning of our trip. And I have to remind you this is also valid for the bathroom. Lest you want to continue your trip walking, refrain from smoking. And bear in mind your seat neighbor will tell on you if they suspect you did that while in the bathroom.” OK, the bus ride was over and I could use a cigarette, just to take my mind away from the cold.
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| Sure! But not right now. |
Our San Francisco morning hushed away all the clouds and revealed a clear horizon, from which the sun started to rise in glory over the bay and the Bay Bridge. At Pier 39, one of the most popular waterfront attractions of the city, the sea lions were stretching on their docks for another day of Sea Lebrities photo shooting. They first arrived here in 1990, in droves of 10-50, immediately after the 1989 Loma-Prieta earthquake. The friendly environment turned the West Marina into the home of more than 300 cute sea lebrities, whose number amounts to even 900 during the winter.
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| Marina at Pier 39 |
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| To Salty and his kins! |
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| Mornin', Sea Lebritites! |
After some overpriced cups of coffee and tea, we decided to head for the hotel, with hopes for a very early check-in. The road took us along the whole bay waterfront. Fisherman’s Wharf was quiet. We realized it was President’s Day and that the early check-in was an amazing idea. We walked north along the bay, passed by Ghirardelli Square and crossed the Marina District from East to West, until we got on Lombard Street. Then we walked again up north, towards Presidio Park, lingering along the crescent streets rich in exotic flower flavors and radiant Spanish colonial houses, with huge silvery bay-windows and large lavishly decorated stone patios. If you ever get to San Francisco, our wholeheartedly housing recommendation is Country Hearth Inn, at 2707 Lombard St, in a quiet residential area, very close to Presidio Park, with large clean rooms and more than reasonable prices.
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| Fisherman's Wharf |
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| Marina District |
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| Marina District |
At noon
On our second day, just before noon, we met poet, translator, and anthologist Stacy Doris, a wonderful person and an exquisite professional. She lived and taught in Paris and New York and now she works and lives in San Francisco, with her husband and two children. We met in Central Sunset. 19th St. at Taraval St. is a quiet residential area, with long wide steep boulevards full of small businesses and cozy quaint cafés, most of them run by Asian families. We had a very pleasant conversation about poetry, expat life, and American realia. In spite of the general preconception, many poets show a really objective point of view on down-to-earth realities. Stacy was one of the few Americans we met who could give us valid explanations for some of the economic and social issues we had identified during our stay there. The significant number of homeless people in Southern California, for instance, she elucidated, was due to both local authorities' failure in dealing with the increasing number of undeprivileged citizens or illegal immigrants, as well as historic federal policies regarding Vietnam-war mentally disordered veterans.
The route of trolley L (light rail) to downtown took us through the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco, a wonderful neighborhood set on two hilltops, with crooked streets and trees in blossom, with Victorian mansions set among small coquette villas. We simply could not help hopping off the trolley, then browsed the streets with the exciting feeling that the place could make a nice home for us anytime - but not then, not now, just sometime. So we hopped again on the next trolley and got downtown.
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| Twin Peaks |
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| Twin Peaks |
Like all central areas of any big American city, downtown San Francisco could have been packed with homeless, lunatics, or at least weird-looking people. Not the case here – and actually quite far from that, one could barely spot them here and there. Market St. crosses downtown westwards and connects Civic Center to the Ferry Building area. The liveliest part of it is around Hyde St., end of line for the San Francisco historic cable car. This is the place for the shopping addicts as well, as most of the important retailers are set here: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Westfield Center, etc. If you keep going westwards, you’ll cross the financial district just before getting to the Ferry Building on The Embarcadero, very close to the Bay Bridge that links San Francisco to Oakland.
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| Civic Center |
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| Along Market St. |
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| Financial District |
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| Financial District |
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| Market St. |
The Ferry Building is the ferry terminal of San Francisco and one of the most important tourist attractions in San Francisco. It serves tourists and locals alike, as it hosts a very lively farmers’ market every day, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Opened in 1898, it has been ever since the focal point for all commuters in the Bay Area. A columnist for San Francisco Chronicle said ‘The Waterfront without the Ferry Tower would be like a birthday cake without a candle’.
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| Ferry Building |
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| Storefront inside Ferry Building |
Going counterclockwise around the San Francisco peninsula, you will get to Pier 39. Around noon it gets as lively as possible. Cafes, bars, diners, souvenir shops, chocolate shops, all will invite you to spend money and take a part of San Francisco with you. Or you can just buy some Ghirardelli chocolate and sunbathe on a bench, delighting in some seal spotting. In spring and summer, it's a good idea to go on a cruise around the bay with one of the many operators that are located here: Alcatraz Cruises, Red and White Fleet, etc.
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| Pier 39 |
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| Lively Pier 39 |
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| One of the many SF souvenirs |
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| Choco-treats |
For a complete and heart-throbbing San Francisco experience, take a Cable Car trip - $5 one way or $13 a day pass. Not only it will take you through the most crooked routes and will offer stunning views of the city, but it will also make you snap and sigh each time it stops according to its schedule or because of an impromptu power break. Breaks are manual, operated by two men, one in front, one at the back. Hilarious. Just to gain some more strength, before jumping on the cable car at Powell St. (for the Powell-Hyde route), stop briefly at The Buena Vista and ask for an Irish coffee. It will spare you any fears and it’s tipsy-yummy.
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| Cable car stop at Powell St. |
In the evening
After a day at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, Marina District is the right place to be. There is no raspy touristy wheezing, only people walking barefoot on the beach, dogs swimming and fetching the ball to their master, children building sand castles, posh boats, amazing sunsets, and incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
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| Golden Gate Bridge |
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| Marina District |
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| Marina District |
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| View to Alcatraz Island from the Marina |
If you are on a shoestring budget or if you just don’t want to spend money on food, but only to get a glimpse of the true American sleazy yet tasty dining, go to Original Buffalo Wings, on Lombard St. For only $6, you’ll get something like in the picture below. And domestic beers for $1.5. You’ll know you wouldn’t have to worry about where you’re going to dine out tomorrow.
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| THE (?) original Buffalo wings |
How to get there:
By train: Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, $61 a return ticket from San Diego
By plane: all American carriers, including Southwest Airlines (low cost)
Where to stay:
Country Hearth Inn – 2707 Lombard St.
Where to eat:
Original Buffalo Wings – 2499 Lombard St.
Mar 7, 2011
Chris Tanasescu on J. Rothenberg's blog
Chris Tanasescu was recently invited on Jerome Rothenberg's blog. Here is the entry:
Chris Tanasescu: The Graph Poem (Four Poems & a Note on the Poetics)
[Chris Tanasescu is an active & highly regarded poet, critic, translator, and performer, writing in both Romanian and English. His poetry-performance/action-painting rock band Margento won the 2008 Romanian Gold Disc, & his most recent book in Romanian & English, The Book from the Court and 9 Other Topologies (Cartea de la Curtea) was published by Vinea Publishing, Bucharest, in 2010. His writing continues in a line from earlier Romanian poets like Tristan Tzara and Gellu Naum.]
Graphs are ways to understand and (re)generate language, society, and biochemical structures or entities. They literally are [more]
Graphs are ways to understand and (re)generate language, society, and biochemical structures or entities. They literally are [more]
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