City lights, Home of the Beat life here and still owned by Lawrence Ferlengetti, it is small compared to  modern bookstores, but jammed with interesting books and a fantastic poetry section. Yuri said he prefers the book stores called Barnes and Knoble where you can drink and read. But he wishes they would let you smoke. Yuri is here through a links program connecting artists and curators from eastern Europe with residencies in the US. There are 45 people total in residencies for one month in the US right now. They met for a week in NYC before going to their separate residencies and they will meet for a week in NYC at the end of the month to discuss what they have learned during their time. There are two other Eastern European artists in town at the Ansel Adams Center for Photography as part of this program. A man (photographer) from Poland and a woman (curator) from Estonia. We met them at the bookstore and had coffee which led into dinner. They all agreed that the best American coffee was from a place called "Starbucks" and the Pole even produced a napkin from a Starbucks that he was saving