Joe Thomas lives in Bernal Heights, and from his house he’s got a nice view of the tower atop Bernal Hill. He recently used that to good advantage by creating this chiaroscuro time-lapse video that shows the tower coming in and out of view amid the all-encompassing fog that is our fate this time of year.
For something a little warmer, Joe also made a sunny-day video taken from the same spot:
Also, following up on our previous post about how Bernal’s microwave tower needs a name, Joe proposes that we call it “Sutrito.” I quite like that, actually. “Sutrito Tower.” (The mini-me resemblance is undeniable.) Thoughts?
UPDATE: 23 Aug 2011
Rebel La Lenguan Burrito Justice shot some superb time-lapse video recently that shows Sutro Tower (aka Sutro Grande) floating in a river of fog. Behold:
Bernalwood 
I like using the reference to Sutro Tower and the diminutive (“ito). However, the small phonetic difference in Sutro and Sutrito could be widened to allow for better differentiation while still accomplishing the association. Though not a scholar of the Spanish language and how diminutives are typically formed, I would propose Sutrotito.
Notice the difference:
SU-Tro
SU-Tri-TO
SU Tro-TI-To
Thanks for posting this, Bernalwood! I’m not a Spanish scholar either, but I haven’t seen “-tito” used as a suffix on a word that already ends in a vowel. I have seen “-cito,” especially on words that end in “e.”
Sutrocito?
Any native speakers want to weigh in?
I finally got around to asking my neighbor Lupe, a native of Yucatan, whether he preferred Sutrito or Sutrocito. He’s for Sutrito, but not strongly so.
Meanwhile, Bernalwood continues to suppress evidence of Satanic apparitions on Bernal Hill…
One other thing: “SU-Tri-TO” is not the correct pronunciation. Sutrito rhymes with burrito.
Hi all! Well Sutrito is indeed cutito, but as a townie, I’m here to tell you we had a name for it back in the day, perhaps b/c the fabulous drummer Sheila E. lived here (for more on the legendary Escovedo clan: http://www.peteescovedo.com/about/efamily.html).
We called it the drum-kit!
I like the Drum-Kit name and the Sheila E. connection, and it fits the pictures of days past. There’s clearly a big bass drum in the top picture here: https://bernalwood.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/why-your-mobile-phone-service-will-continue-to-suck-blame-nimby-neighbors-and-your-san-francisco-supervisors/
Another configuration: http://long-lines.net/places-routes/Bernal_Heights_CA/Bernal_Heights_CA-005A.html
The recent Satanic activity on the hill makes me think of a giant Dave Grohl as Beezleboss in the Tenacious D. movie beating those skins. But that’s just me.
Most of the big “drums” have been removed in recent years, though. Does this still read as a drum kit from afar? http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/5464215020/
re: Beelzeboss on the Drum-Kit, if somebody could photoshop this with link 2 above, that would be awesome:
Rough sketch of Beelzebernal on the Drum Kit:
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/17110831@N04/6072184029/in/photostream
Fantastic! That’ll become a post. Nice work, Joe!
If we mounted a giant mirror above Candlestick pitched at a 45° angle, we could watch 49ers games while from the top of Bermal!
Thanks, Todd, looking forward to the post! My photoshop skills may be primitive (I was actually using the GIMP, and for the first time), but somehow that makes the image funnier, to me, anyway. Do you need an Eastern Bureau chief?
One can see the tower atop of Bernal Hill from inside Candlestick Park. Here’s a pic I took during Saturday’s game. The fog would blur it out every once in a while.
BTW, Salvadoreans can’t just call me Juan. They all call me Juancito. Apparently, it’s common to add -ito to names in El Salvador.
Nice! I’ve never seen that view before.
Same here. Love that!
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