russlish-blog

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Question of the Week

What's your favorite picnic spot in the Bay Area and why? Where do you get your picnic food? Or your borsh ingredients, for that matter?

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I’m in a St. Petersburg mood these days ♥ So I post my favourite photo by the magical Yelena Yemchuk, with Dostoesvky , Gogol and Krylov ♥ from her “White Russian” shooting. These are my three favourite writers, so we share the same passion.

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And here are some videos from past performances at Porto Franco.

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Event Announcement: Klezmer Brunch at the Porto Franco Art Parlor

Klezmer Brunch at PFR

The next Klezmer Brunch at Porto Franco Art Parlor will be an event of a cyclopean scale. Just a reading of the list of musicians will make you dance.

Ben Goldberg – clarinet

David Chernyavsky – violin

Darren Johnston – trumpet

Rob Reich – accordion

Daniel Fabricant – bass

WHERE:

953 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110

2nd floor, no elevator

2-4 pm, February 24

Doors at 1:30pm

Donations: $20+, all go to musicians

Food and drinks provided

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Sunset in San Francisco

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Despite high interest, relatively few Bay Area expatriates are expected to turn out at the Russian consulate in San Francisco to help elect Russia’s next president.

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Russian San Francisco

The highest number of cafes and restaurants per capita of any USA city, a trendy art scene supported by many galleries and tourist dollars, as well as a highly developed public transportation system, even by European standards, certainly qualifies San Francisco for the title of the "Most European" of American cities. San Francisco is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with hilly streets providing gorgeous glimpses of the San Francisco Bay and its famous bridges. Our favorite Golden Gate Bridge, is also the city's oldest.

Looking for diversity, well San Francisco has plenty of it, as well. Every ethnicity and preference group finds a home in San Francisco. There is certainly the mandatory of any large US city Chinatown, and a surprising Japan-town, home to probably as many Koreans as the Japanese. North Beach neighborhood is unmistakably Italian. And then there are the "Russians" more on them later... Non-standard sexual preferences are the norm in the Castro. Hippies are still chilling at Haight-Ashbury, the place where the entire movement began in the sixties. The clubby 20-somethingsdon't stray far from SoMa, just across Market St. from the plusher financial district with the adjacent Union Square.

Now, about the "Russians"... An unusual thing about the Russian-speaking community of the San Francisco Bay Area is that there is more than one. And each one of these communities has little interaction with others.

Most prominent are the recent (mostly Jewish) Russian-speaking immigrants living along Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Walking down Geary between 14th and 26th Avenues it is hard not to notice the similarities between this street and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Our own mini version of Odessa is less saturated and smaller than New York's, but then again San Francisco itself is like an apple seed when compared to the Big Apple.

It is not long before one notices the contrast between that and the oldest San Francisco Russian-speaking (Russian Orthodox) community. Geographically close, but worlds apart, these communities have nothing in common but the language.

The third notable Russian speaking community is geographically dispersed and centered approximately 40 miles south of San Francisco in an area called the "Silicon Valley." Russian-speakers that belong to this group tend to be most affluent and very well educated. On the one hand, this group is the most diverse culturally and on the other very strictly characterized as mostly men in their 20s and 30s.