Spotted this great little scene on Saturday afternoon while zipping around Bernal Heights Boulevard. Just a dad, a mom, and their baby, taking advantage of the the last few minutes of daylight on a mid-December evening by flying a kite on Bernal Hill.
Beautiful.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Karen from the Stray Bar on Cortland is doing her part to make this holiday merry for some less-fortunate kids this year. Play along, and she’ll give you something yummy to drink:
Stray Bar’s Destination North Pole & 3rd annual SFFD Toy Drive Party
Join us in helping to fill Santa’s Sleigh — bring an unwrapped toy for a deserving Bay Area child and help spread the holiday joy! Receive a complimentary glass of wine or pint of beer for each toy. Our holiday party is Friday December 9th. Get in the holiday spirit with DJ Santa (aka Flirty G), enjoy hors d’oeuvres, holiday cookies, and party with the Stray Bar elves all night!
Help us break last year’s record of 3 full bins of toys. We hope to overwhelm our friend’s at the local fire dept with a few car loads of toys.
We will continue to collect donated toys through December 20th — at which point we will deliver the toys to the SFFD station on Folsom Street.
We know that December is a busy month filled with parties & celebrations — consider stopping by for a pre-party drink or pass this message along to friends and neighbors who might be interested. We appreciate your assistance in helping us gather as many toys as possible!
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Who needs Odwalla or Naked Juice when we’ve got Clara, Audrey, Hannah, and Esme?
And why pay three-plus bucks for a factory-produced bottle of glop shipped in from godknowswhere, when you can pay just 25 cents for an all-natural cup of delicious fruit punch made by hand, with love, here in our own neighborhood? Seriously!
Last weekend, on Ellsworth just off Cortland, I sampled the beverages created by a gaggle of girls from the Bernal Heights Junior Capitalist Collaborative, which they offered for sale exclusively through their popup sidewalk distribution facility.
I have no idea what was in their top-secret recipe, but I do know for sure that it was packed full of yum. And watermelon. I’d say their business prospects are good, so long as they can avoid sampling too much of the merchandise:
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Last weekend, a few paternal units from the Bernal Dads Racing Team assembled at a secret local spaceport to do some amateur rocketry with the kids.
Overall the effort was a success. Many rockets were launched, and the kids demonstrated an exceptional talent for doing mission control-style countdowns (in unison).
“Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two.. One.. LIFTOFF!”
Great altitudes were achieved. The barriers of space were tested.
But recovery of the rockets proved more challenging. Several of the Bernal spacecraft encountered significant arboreal interference shortly before touchdown:
Flight commanders wrote off the stricken craft as a loss.
But in the spirit of science and exploration, the days experiments were deemed a complete success. Gateways to the New Frontier were opened. “One small step for our children, one giant leap for Bernalkind,” and all that.
Indeed, with the space shuttle now in retirement and Uncle Sam’s space transportation strategy in disarray, it’s time for Bernal Heights to take matters into our own hands. We can do this. We have The Right Stuff. We need a new group to add to the roster of neighborhood civic organizations.
So, fellow citizens, please join me in welcoming the inauguration of the Bernalwood Aeronautics and Space Administration:
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Neighbor Isaac captured the moment when a small child in Bernal Heights first experienced the Joy of Chert. Though her young brain hardly comprehends the multi-faceted magnificence of our chert, we all know that in an intuitive, pre-reptilian way, she nevertheless understands its deep and stabilizing influence.
IMAGE: Isaach
It’s Halloween! So where are the clever kids going to show off their costumes and scoop up piles of candy in Bernal Heights tonight? Here are a few hotspots:
Cortland Avenue will be the go-to place for members of the short set to see and be seen. In keeping with ancient tradition, the merchants of Cortland will be dressed in costume to hand out candy beginning at around 5:30. Quite charming.
25 Bessie Street will host a Haunted Garage. Says Neighbor Annalise, “We’ve created a small but fantastical and somewhat scary totally-homemade haunted garage at 25 Bessie street– open Monday night at 5:00. It’s free of course. Non-scary trick-or-treating for little ones too. Our house is just one block from the Harvest Hills market at the corner of Precita and Bessie streets. Stop by, it’s gonna be spooky!”
Bennington Street (above Cortland) SSArtist says it’s hopping there on Halloween.
Treat Street (DUH!) south of Precita Park gets a lot of kid traffic most Halloweens. As it should.
Precita Street between Mission and Folsom is kid-friendly and — bonus! — flat. Many homes here get a lot of trick-or-treaters.
Anything we missed? Comment below or email us, and we’ll update this list accordingly. Happy Halloween!
PHOTO: Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter on the Halloween beat on Cortland in 2009, with her bestest, bestest friend. By Telstar Logistics.
Check out this beautiful photo by Neighbor Adel, who published it on her Project 365 blog:
My golden boy on Bernal hill at sunset.
Alert readers might also recognize this handsome young man as a San Francisco Giants fan with his own artistic flair.
PHOTO: Neighbor Adel
There’s rebellion afoot at Paul Revere School on Tompkins, with a rally that was scheduled for 8 am this morning taking place to protest the policies of the school’s principal. The SF Appeal carries the story:
Parents at a school in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood are holding a rally Thursday to call for the removal of the school’s principal for what they say are unfair regulations.
The 20 or so parents at Paul Revere School, which teaches pre-kindergarten to eighth grade students, are taking issue with principal Sheila Sammon, who is in her second year at the school.
Sammon has allegedly instituted new rules such as issuing demerits for students taking bathroom trips, said Phillip Pierce, an organizer with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a group that advocates for low-income and immigrant families.
Any Paul Revere families care to weigh in on the controversy? Comment away.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
The Giants are officially out of playoff contention, alas. But Giant Fever is alive and well among the next generation. Reader Adel tells Bernalwood that her kids love the new Brian Wilson street art that was recently added to several Bernal Heights homes, and she wrote her own blog post to show it:
When these posts of Brian Wilson street art popped up in my feed I was naturally intrigued. I put it on my list of things to go look up if I ever found an extra few minutes driving home to or from school. And one day I did 🙂
After visiting the installation on Colridge (shown above), Adel headed over to the Chalkboard House on Mullen:
My Rex was a little hesitant at first since he thought the owners might get upset if they caught him drawing on their garage door! But after a little coaxing, he quickly got into it… After writing what he wanted, he then decided he wanted to draw a picture of himself pitching. He would stop to take a step back to make sure he liked the progress of the drawing. He decided he needed bigger arms if he was going to be a pitcher so he fixed that problem. And of course just like most future Giant pitchers, he wanted to be just like Timmy [Lincecum]!
Beautiful. A second masterpiece. Thanks for sharing the tale, Adel!
PHOTOS: Four in the City
Here’s some amazing news: Remember that video we posted from Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School?
Local Bernal elementary school, Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School (just off Precita Park) is a finalist in the Coupon Cabin’s arts grant contest.
Our YouTube video has garnered almost 1,000 views and could use a boost from Bernal neighbors. Views, “likes,” and comments are 25% of the judging for the $5k, $10k, or $15k award to be used for art and music programming at this local gem of an elementary school.
We have until September 18 to rally around the video and win the award for our programs.
Well, hot damn, Leonard Flynn School up and WON top prize in the competition! Reader Teresa sent an update today:
Just wanted to let you know that thanks to Bernalwood (among others) Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School won the grand prize grant! The full $15,000 bucks in the Coupon Cabin arts grant contest!
Bernal will benefit greatly from these funds as it goes directly to helping our kids’ education in the arts.
Spectacular. Nicely done, people. Nicely done. Goooooo BERNAL!
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: Telstar Logistics
I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on TV. But I’m happy to prescribe some very fun music on Saturday night to benefit Junipero Serra Elementary School in Bernal Heights.
Junipero Serra Elementary School’s First Annual Polkapolloza Benefit with POLKACIDE, SASSY, CARMICHAEL AND THE FRIJOLITAS BAND
At Thee Parkside
1600 17th Street, San Francisco
Saturday, Sep. 17, 2011 11:00 am
Doors: 11:00am (bands 12, 1, 2 ish)
All Ages / Bar with ID
$10
Bake Sale!!! Buy a Pie!
If you need any more introduction, check out the the joy that is Polkacide:
Here’s your big chance to be a mouse-potato AND help Bernal’s Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School… at the same time! Neighbor Teresa explains:
Local Bernal elementary school, Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School (just off Precita Park) is a finalist in the Coupon Cabin’s arts grant contest.
Our YouTube video has garnered almost 1,000 views and could use a boost from Bernal neighbors. Views, “likes,” and comments are 25% of the judging for the $5k, $10k, or $15k award to be used for art and music programming at this local gem of an elementary school.
We have until September 18 to rally around the video and win the award for our programs.
I’m not going to embed the video, just to make double-extra sure the school gets full credit for all the clicks and views. But you know what to do, dear neighbors. View this video. (It’s only a minute long.) Add it as a favorite. Share it on the Facebook. Tweet your peeps. Spam distant relatives in far-away states, and/or any Nigerian dictators you correspond with regularly. Let’s help bring home the bacon for the kids at Leonard Flynn.
If you spent time wandering the neighborhood during the Bernal Heights Hillwide Garage Sale last Saturday, you probably loaded up on cast-off tchotchkes and supercheap housewares. But if you happened to walk by one very special garage, you would have had the opportunity to purchase some original artwork from Ada, an emerging artist at the peak of her creative power.
Reader Liz captured the scene:
For the Bernal Hill-wide garage sale, custom portraits by Ada. This guy requested a portrait of himself in a radioactive forest with a unicorn.
And the finished piece? Voila!!
If only Gertrude Stein could be in Bernalwood now…
PHOTOS: Liz Henry via the Bernalwood Flickr group
Bernalwood 