Two weeks ago, Neighbor Laurie invited one and all to join a meetup for visual artists on Bernal Hill. This week, Neighbor Laurie shares some of the art that emerged from the gathering.
Check it out:
IMAGES: Courtesy of SF Sketchers
Author: Todd_Lappin
Reminder: Bernal Hillwide Garage Sale Happens on Saturday
This is a last call announcement for potential garage sale hosts, and a reminder for aspiring bargain-hunters: The annual Bernal Heights Hillwide Garage Sale happens tomorrow, Saturday, August 11!
If you want to sell off some of your stuff, the deadline to add your address to the Bernal Hillwide Garage Sale MegaMap is tonight at midnight. (Listing instructions here.)
If you want to buy other people’s stuff, use the Hillwide Garage Sale MegaMap to navigate. So far there are 57 71 homes participating, with more added daily:
Bargains ahoy! Have fun out there.
Star Sighting: Nancy Pelosi Visits Bernalwood
Celebrity Alert!
Bernal Heights was sooooo Inside the Beltway on Tuesday night, as SF Supervisor (and amateur paparazzi) Eric Mar reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dropped in for a house call:
Democratic Leader Pelosi speaks briefly to local Democratic Party leaders at the home of David Onek and Kara Dukakis in Bernal Heights.
PHOTO: Eric Mar
Bernal Hill Makes Cameo Appearance Amid Muni Bus Mayhem
Our transit agency encountered a teensy-weensy glitch yesterday, when a Muni bus took out a fire hydrant on Valencia near Cesar Chavez. Ooopsie! As you can see, Sutrito Tower witnessed the whole thing.
Meanwhile, in the category of “Finding Beauty in Chaos,” cyril_at_sf captured these lovely photos from the accident scene:
PHOTOS: Top, The Fog Bender (via MissionMission). Below, Cyril_at_sf
Friday: Celebrate Secession Art & Design’s Fifth Anniversary
Secession Art & Design is a Bernalwood treasure. Part creative studio, part art gallery, part fashion boutique, owner Eden Stein’s store on Mission (at 30th, across from Safeway) is a stylish labor of love.
Happily, Secession will celebrate its Fifth Anniversary on Friday evening:
Join us for our 5th Anniversary Party at Secession
Friday, August 10, 6:30 -9:30pmExtralars will DJ, Inna Jam is doing a jam tasting, wine will flow, and you’ll get a chance to meet our in-house and featured artists. If you are not able to make the party you can stop by to say hello Tuesday thru Sunday,12-7pm.
Secession Art & Design opened its doors 5 years ago with ambition, creativity, and dedication to community. Many people were surprised we chose this location, but the location chose us. 5 years later, our gallery and boutique showcases 50 artists and designers in “The Bernal Flats,” a neighborhood that is bustling with amazing restaurants, bars, boutiques, and galleries. Our inspiration has been to create a movement where the customer and the maker can feel connected. Our two in-house studios nestled in our boutique give clients an opportunity to experience process. A fresh approach to curating encourages our customers to come every two months to see our new collection of art, clothing, and jewelry.
Bonus! The current show at includes this Bernal-inspired piece by artist Hilary Williams:
Singing Out the Fabric of Morning” by Hilary Williams. 2012 Bernal Heights painting using acrylic and screen printing on fabric and wood.
PHOTO: Top, Eden Stein inside Secession, by Julie Michelle
Xtreme Unicyclist Shreds Gnarly Steeps of Bernal Hill
I noticed him last weekend as I approached Bernal Hill from the southern entrance; he was silhouetted against Sutro Tower and the setting sun. He was standing on the rim of the old gravel pit the Bernal snowboarders call Rock Quarry, and as I got closer I noticed that he was leaning on… a unicycle!
But it was no ordinary unicycle: It had a beefed-up frame and one knobby tire; it looked a lot like a monster truck (if a monster truck had pedals and only one spoked wheel). I moved in warily for a closer look:
I watched him look down the rock steep face, and pause for a meditative moment on the lip of the couloir…
… and then — TOTALLY XTREME!!!— he dropped in!
Dude rode it all the way down, smooth as glass, and didn’t stop until he hit the flats below.
Impressive. Maybe next time he can try doing it while also juggling bowling pins or playing an accordion.
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Trippy “My Morning Jacket” Video Was Made in Bernalwood
OMG, did you see the thing in Rolling Stone about the fabulous new video from My Morning Jacket??
My Morning Jacket have unveiled a stimulating new video for the druggy ode “Outta My System,” featuring Zach Galifianakis as a powerful wizard in a cartoon world. “Told me not to smoke drugs, but I wouldn’t listen,” sings frontman Jim James, before he and the band enter an animated landscape worthy of a peyote trip. After landing in the psychedelic alternate reality, the musicians become cyclopses, traversing the trippy universe in a hotwired cosmic car.
Check it out:
As we all know, a freaky video “worthy of a peyote trip” can only have come from one place: The Dominion of Bernalwood. And where in Bernal Heights?
Bernal celebrity Michael Gilette writes:
Here’s something made in Bernalwood. I made all the artwork and directed the animated portion of this My Morning Jacket Video on Lundy’s Lane.
Wow! Hotness!!! Oh, and here’s the proof: Neighbor Michael gets a big honkin’ production credit at the end of the vid:
Lots more eye-popping images from the video right here.
Congratulations, Michael, and thanks for making us all slightly more glamorous.
Bernal Hill Provides Ringside Seat for Chevron Apocalypse
Yesterday’s big, horrible fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond is an ecological nightmare, but on the visual side, got a clear view of it from our our Bernal Hill observation post.
PHOTOS: From top, Michael Minson, @stickel, and Neighbor Rebecca
Foodie Wanted: Space Opening Up in 331 Cortland Marketplace
Neighbor Paul, of Paulie’s Pickle fame, tips Bernalwood that there’s a space opening up soon inside the fabulous 331 Cortland Marketplace. He passed along this email from 331 manager Debra Resnik:
Our retail culinary incubator (located at 331 Cortland, Bernal Heights, SF) is looking for an artisan food vendor to complement and enhance our current line-up. The ideal candidate is looking for a storefront location to grow their business, has never had a bricks and mortar presence, although experience producing and selling their product and a following is a must. They can be from the farmers market world, have done pop-ups, sold out of mobile kitchens and carts or catered events.
Please forward this announcement to any interested parties.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
Debra Resnik @
415.699.9059
Paulie adds, “Pickle vendors need not apply.” Fair enough, but what other flavor of gourmet yumminess should move into 331 to round out the foodie mix in Cortlandia?
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Giant Wall of Fog Makes a Stylish Evening Entrance
Interior Decorator Jessica Laine snapped this photo late last week, while admitting that she is “falling in love with this part of the city.” (No surprise.) Apart from being lovely, however her photo also captures something very seasonal about summertime in Bernal Heights.
As we all know, summer is generally not the most glamorous time of year here in Our Faire City, because the season tends to bring fog, followed by fog, and then more fog, which is rather glum and chilly.
Yet to the extent that there is anyplace in San Francisco where the ill effects of summer weather patterns are not felt, it is here, in tony Bernal Heights. The realtors used to call this part of town the Sun Belt, and the label is generally true — except for when it is not.
Apart from our daily dose of sunshine, an additional benefit of our location is that we usually get a ringside seat whenever a massive wall of fog (it’s named Karl, by the way) creeps over Twin Peaks to engulf the northeast corner of the City.
UPDATE: Just remembered this photo from my own archive.
Here’s an aerial view of what it looks like when the fog rolls in, as seen from a Cessna flying about 1000′ over Bernal Heights on June 24, 2006:
And this photo, taken a few minutes later, explains why Sutro Tower needs an Observation Deck:
PHOTO: Jessica Laine. Below, Telstar Logistics.
Submissions Wanted: Art From Within Bernal Heights
Attention Bernal Heights Artists! The glamorous Inclusions Gallery on Cortland is seeking submissions for their annual “Art From Within Bernal Heights” exhibit that’ll happen in September. The submission deadline is August 24.
From the announcement:
Inclusions Gallery is now accepting submissions for its 4th annual exhibit, Inclusions: Art from within Bernal Heights. All residents of Bernal Heights, regardless of age or artistic medium, are welcome and highly encouraged to participate.
This is a wonderful opportunity to have your work seen, also to get to know the creative community in your neighborhood. In previous years it has been highly successful, exhibiting roughly 100 works per show. For several artists their participation has resulted in furthering their work, through group and solo exhibits, in the gallery.
Select pieces will be featured in an exclusive exhibit: September 22 – October 21, 2012.
Due to limited gallery space, not all submissions are guaranteed to be chosen for exhibition.The Specifics:
-Artist must be a resident of Bernal Heights
-All pieces must be available for sale
-1 to 5 pieces may be submitted
– Flat Submission Fee (1-5 pieces): $20.00
What Happened to the Old Cancilla’s Market Sign, and What You Could Do With It in Your Living Room
Once upon a time not really all that long ago, the Precita Park storefront on the corner of Folsom and Bessie that we now call Harvest Hills was a rather typical corner store known as Cancilla’s Market.
It was called Cancilla’s Market for several generations and many moons, until the space changed hands. Today’s Harvest Hills has a decidedly more gourmet flavor, and little now remains of the former Cancilla’s except the funky midcentury San Francisco wallpaper that still lines the walls. All the other bits and pieces of the old place have been scattered to the wind — including the big Cancilla’s Market sign that used to hang out front. Until now.
The former Cancilla’s Market sign has resurfaced in Sacramento, and Bernalwood has learned that it has been repurposed for use as a home media center.
Wait… what?
Artist Cody Lane contacted Bernalwood to explain:
I am an artist/builder of things in Sacramento CA. I purchased this sign some time ago at a used furniture store in Davis CA, and it transformed it into a media center or book shelf. The piece will accommodate a flat screen up to 50″ and components. The Cancillas sign was a lucky find and it’s a really interesting piece of functional found art. The sign is for sale, and I can deliver and install if needed.
Email Cody if you’d like to watch television inside a genuine slice of Bernal Heights history.
PHOTOS: via Cody Lane
BHNC Hosts Meeting About Upcoming Alemany Night Market
You might have heard about the upcoming Street Food Festival that will happen on Folsom Street and 22nd on Saturday, August 18. However, you may not have heard about the first-ever Alemany Night Market that will happen the evening before, on Friday night, August 17, right here in glamorous Bernalwood.
Brilliant!!! Such a great idea!!! Mark your calendars.
Rachel from the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center tells us there will be a meeting at 6:30 pm BHNC tomorrow to discuss the Alemany Night Market, and all are welcome to attend:
La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen providing affordable commercial kitchen space and hands-on technical assistance to low-income and immigrant women entrepreneurs, is hosting the first ever San Francisco Night Market at Alemany Market on Friday, August 17th. Alemany has been the proud launching point of La Cocina vendors like Azalina’s Malaysian, El Huarache Loco, Sabores del Sur, Estrellita’s Snacks and several more. BHNC is hosting a community meeting for La Cocina on Thursday, 8/2 at 6:30 PM to make sure community members have a chance to get more information about the evening event, expectations and ways to get involved. Food will be provided by La Cocina business and Cortland business Anda Piroshki. For more information about the La Cocina Community Meeting, please contact caleb AT lacocina DOT org.
More details about the event in this spiffy poster:
