Next Saturday Sept. 28: Big Block Party on Elsie Street, and You’re Invited!

Bakeoff Winners

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Indian summer is here (pretty much), and your neighbors on Elsie Street are throwing their big annual block party NEXT Saturday, Sept 28. All Citizens of Bernalwood are herewith invited to join the fun:

A Neighborhood Gem for Your Enjoyment

The 7th Annual Elsie Street Block Party
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013
12 Noon~3pm
Elsie Street between Cortland & Eugenia
Bernal Heights, San Francisco

** Bake-Off
** Bhangra Dancers
** Bouncy House
** Bean Bag Toss
** Barbecue
** Piñata
** Elsie Debut of Wolfie the Puppet

Freely presented with lots of heart and talent by Elsie Street Neighbors.

  • The beautiful Bhangra dancers return to perform and teach us
  • Lots of Baking Sweat Behind those Bake-Off Smiles (You can be a judge!)
  • Ye Olde Bouncy House on our Block
  • The Piñata for the Kids’ Enjoyment
  • Wolfie and Puppeteer Nick Jones make their Elsie Debut this year
  • Busting Out the Brand-New Bernal Bean Bag Toss

And the Darnedest Friendliest Neighbors!

PHOTOS: 2012 Elsie Block Party

Attention, Artists: Submissions Wanted for 2013 “Art From Within Bernal Heights” Gallery Show

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Wanna share your amazing art with the rest of us? The Inclusions Gallery on Cortland is still accepting submissions for the annual (and excellent) “Art From Within Bernal Heights” show, but you’d best hurry, because the submission deadline is October 2:

This annual event is dedicated to the multi-talented individuals that make up the highly creative community of Bernal Heights. All residents are welcome and encouraged to participate. Each year this successful exhibit displays over 100 diverse works of art. It’s a terrific opportunity to have your work shown while participating in an event that celebrates and supports the creativity of the local community.

Exhibition dates
October 19 – November 17, 2013

Artist reception
November 2, 2013 / 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Eligibility
You must be a resident of Bernal Heights to participate.

Mediums welcome
Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, artist book, ceramics, sculpture, textile, fiber art, mix media, collage, assemblage. Original art only.

Deadline for Submission October 2, 2013, before midnight.

Submission guidelines and complete details right here.

IMAGE: Mosaic of 2012 Art From Within Bernal Heights, by Inclusions Gallery. 

Benefit Garage Sale on Bernal North Slope, Saturday

Bernal Hill from Billy Goat Hill Park

Neighbor Noah wants you to know about a benefit garage sale that’s happening in Bernal this weekend:

The Second Annual Rocky Mountain Nursery School Yard- and Bake- Sale

When: 9:00-3:00 on Saturday, Sept 21st

Where: 22 Norwich St. (Between Harrison and Alabama)

Books, toys, furniture, records, clothing and other treasures.

100% of all sales go directly to our co-op Nursery School

Tonight: See Soul Music Born in Bernal Heights, Live at Amnesia

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Baby and the Luvies is a local band that performs 1960s-style Memphis soul music.

Apart from making some terrific music, the band also has strong Bernal Heights DNA, with celebrity Bernal writer Chris Colin on bass, Bernal journalist Lessley Anderson on vocals/keyboards, and Bernal neighbor Galen Krumel on guitar. Plus, Bernalwood’s sources tell us singer Ilana Diamond has been known to spend the night in Bernal from time to time. (Shhhhh.)

Baby and Luvies has a big gig tonight at Amnesia on Valencia, starting at 9 pm, and you are sooooooo invited. It will be very fun.

One way or another, definitely definitely definitely give Baby and the Luvies a listen. The band’s CD has been stuck in your Bernalwood editor’s car CD player for the last month, and I’m pleased to report that I am in no hurry to get it out. Good stuff.

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PHOTO: Top, Baby and the Luvies performing at Litquake, December 2012

This Week: Enjoy the Glamorous 2013 Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Series

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Okay, fashionistas and film geeks! It’s that silver-screen time of year here in Bernal Heights, because this week we get to enjoy the glamorousness that is the 10th annual Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.

Bonus: Here’s the sexxxy new trailer from BHOC, featuring  jaw-dropping footage from Nathan Shipley’s magical quadcopter:

BHOC is exactly like Sundance or Telluride, only without so many people wearing furry apres-ski boots. As locals, we know the drill: Free films. Most are short. Most are shown outside. Emphasis on local topics and filmmakers. Bring seating. Dress warmly. Snuggle as necessary. Enjoy.

Here’s the studio-executive summary of the schedule, with the kickoff party happening tomorrow:

Thursday, August 29
7 pm
Opening Night at El Rio
3158 Mission Street
Party, preview, and awards

Friday, August 30
7, 8 and 9 pm
Film Crawl on Cortland Avenue
Bennington Street to Anderson Street
Progressive screenings / six venues

Saturday, August 31
4 pm
A Look Back: Favorite Films from the first 9 years of Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street
Films & Filmmakers reception

Sunday, September 1
6:30 pm
Under the Stars at Precita Park — Season finale
Folsom Street at Precita Avenue
Films & live music in the park

Check out the BHOC website for additional details and film schedules.

PHOTO: Top, BHOC at Precita Park, 2012 by Telstar Logistics

TONIGHT: Tasty Alemany Night Market Returns to Benefit La Cocina

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Alemany Night Market

Last year’s Night Market street food festival at the Alemany Farmer’s Market site was a lot of fun — so much so that at the time we declared we really should do things like that more often.

Well, it’s one year later, and the street food festival is happening again. Tonight!! August 16!! From 6pm to 10pm! And just like last time, the delicious Alemany Night Market is a benefit for the deliciously fantastic La Cocina incubator for food entrepreneurs:

You are walking through vibrant streets with the smells of food and the sounds of people making that food. Everywhere around you are people, sitting, talking, sharing over steaming bowls of laksa, pozole, or ramen. A couple on a corner leans into a plate of tacos, takoyaki, or brisket.

You could be anywhere, or everywhere, in the world. Instead, you are at La Cocina’s 2nd Annual San Francisco Night Market. It is August 16th, 2013, and you are at Alemany Farmer’s Market, one of San Francisco’s oldest landmarks. There is music, food, games from around the world, and, most importantly, wonderful people. It is San Francisco, of course, so it can be cold. But fear not: you have blankets and heat lamps. You are happy.

Join our La Cocina entrepreneurs and guest celebrity chefs who are collaborating to make delicious dishes from all over the world. This event is a benefit for La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen, that you can learn more about here. Entrance is a $35 donation, and all food and drink is priced under $10.

Bernalwood’s sources in the foodie underground tell us that the selection this year will be excellent — and (PRO TIP!!!) especially the yakitori.

Get your tickets right here. Also (shhhhhhhhh!) Neighbor Arno from BernalBucks set up a deal so you can get $10 off your tickets if you use the “bernalbucks” promo code. Because you’re a local. Which has its privileges.

See you tonight.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Saturday: Use This High-Tech Treasure Map to Plunder the 2013 Bernal Heights Hillwide Garage Sale

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Okay, Bernal Heights craphounds treasure-seekers!

It’s time to stuff your wallet with small bills, fire up your UPS-surplus route optimization software package, and bookmark the map you see right here, because the 2013 Bernal Heights Hillwide Garage sale happens tomorrow (“… tomorrow!… tomorrow!”), Saturday (“… Saturday!… Saturday!”) August 10, 2013, all over this sexxxy little neighborhood of ours.

There are 82 (!!!) houses shown on the map you see, which means there are 82 sites for you to find superior bargains while picking through the materialist leftovers of your neighbors’ glamorous lifestyles. Find furniture. Find housewares. Find clothes. Find collectibles. Find your future baby-mamma. It’s all here, at the city’s biggest, sexiest neighborhood garage sale.

The Bernal Heights Hillwide Garage Sale happens from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday.

Study the map.

Use the high-tech rollovers on each flag to see what’s for sale where. Plot your attack strategy. Shop early, and shop often to get the best bargains.

See you there.

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Tonight: See Neighbor Rich Radford’s Intense Floral Photos at Succulence

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Bernal Neighbor Rich Radford is having an opening party tonight, Aug. 9, from 5 pm to 8 pm at Succulence on Cortland to celebrate “Botanica,” a new show of his (rather intense) nature photographs:

Rich Radford, born and raised in South Africa has called Bernal Heights home for the past fifteen years. His early years exploring both the diverse fauna and flora of his native country, combined with his later professional training as a Landscape Architect, have allowed him to capture elements through the lens of his camera with a unique eye for texture, pattern, and structure. For Rich, the process of capturing an image is built upon time spent moving patiently through diverse landscapes. His photographs portray brief moments in nature that are held within the greater mystery of our planet. Through his work, Rich hopes to connect people more intimately with the intricacies of the natural world.

PHOTOS: Rich Radford

Join Bernal Superstar Author Peter Orner as He Launches a New Set of Stories

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Feeling literary? Join in as Bernal Heights superstar author Peter Orner launches his new collection of stories, “Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge,” tonight (Aug 6) at 7 pm at the Hotel Rex.

Litquake is hosting:

Litquake is proud to host the San Francisco launch of Peter Orner’s Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge at our Epicenter this August. This book is the long-awaited second short-story collection from a writer whose first was hailed as “one of the best of the last decade” (Kevin Brockmeier). Orner will be in conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald from McSweeney’s.

In this new collection, Orner zeroes in on the strange ways our memories define us: A woman’s husband dies before their divorce is finalized; a man runs for governor of Illinois and loses much more than an election; two brothers play beneath the infamous bridge at Chappaquiddick. Employing the masterful compression for which he’s become known, Orner presents a kaleidoscope of individual lives viewed in startling, intimate close-up. Whether writing of Geraldo Rivera’s attempt to reveal the contents of Al Capone’s vault or of a father and daughter trying to outrun a hurricane, he illuminates universal themes. In stories that span considerable geographic ground—from Chicago to Wyoming, from Massachusetts to the Czech Republic—he writes of the past we can’t seem to shake, the losses we can’t make up for, and how our stories help us reclaim what we thought was gone forever.

Details and reservation link right here.

IMAGE: via Litquake

UPDATED: Prosecution Update and New Hearing Date for Bernal Mugging Suspects

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UPDATE, August 7: The hearings that had been scheduled for Friday and next Monday have been rescheduled. Bernalwood will provide details on new hearing dates when they are available.

Neighbor Sarah is Bernalwood’s official unofficial liaison with local law-enforcement agencies, and she brings this update on the criminal proceedings now underway for the suspects arrested in connection with last winter’s violent mugging spree in Bernal Heights:

I emailed the assistant DA on the Bernal robbery suspects’ cases, and she had a few updates.

– No plea deal was reached at the meeting last Weds.  The DA is open to a plea bargain but with serious prison time (10+ years) attached.

POSTPONED: – The evidentiary hearing IS scheduled to go forward this Friday (8/9) and Monday (8/12), but the defense has filed another motion to continue (ie, reschedule).  The DA’s office plans to oppose this.  The judge will decide whether to move forward or not, and we will not know this before.

So, as was the case before, we want to show community support for our neighbors who were victims or witnesses to these crimes and who must appear if the hearing does go forward.

The suspects have consistently had many supporters in the courtroom, and testifying in any hearing or trial can be an unnerving proposition.  So if you have time or can make time to attend on Friday, even if it’s only for an hour or two, I know our neighbors would appreciate it.

Right now, only two people have signed up.

Use this form to sign up (ignore the hearing for 7/31, which has already occurred).  And many thanks for the community support as this schedule has dragged out (which is, unfortunately, common).

Saturday: Lost Tribe of College Hill Organizes Bernal Cut Cleanup

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The Lost Tribe of College Hill is an ancient and proud part of the Dominion of Bernalwood, but it is also a world unto itself. Squeezed between Mission Street and the speedway portion of San Jose Boulevard, College Hill’s odd geography has nurtured its independent identity, and a recent (if honorably intentioned) redistricting saw College Hill removed from the David Campos’s District 9 supervisorial district to Scott Weiner’s District 8.

As a frontier district of Bernalwood, the people of the Lost Tribe of College Hill have had little choice but to learn self-reliance. They even have developed their own media delivery system, in the form of the  “College Hills News,” an occasional email newsletter produced by the College Hill Neighborhood Association.

The latest edition brings news of a clean-up event in the Bernal Cut that’s happening tomorrow morning, Saturday, August 3:

Tomorrow (Saturday, 8/3): Richland to St. Mary’s path clean-up and green-up with SF Parks Alliance

When: 9:15 a.m. to 2 p.m., and you can join in for any amount of time

Meet at: Bernal Cut Path at Richland Bridge (if arriving at 9:15), or wander down toward St. Mary’s to find a place to pitch in

Bring: gloves and gardening tools if you have them (we should have some to share)

Expect to: help clean and green along the Bernal Cut Path and the College Triangle Garden, including weeding, trimming, and spreading mulch (Thanks in advance for the mulch delivery, Joey!)

More info on the path clean-up, from Julia Brashares at the SF Parks Alliance:
The Clean & Green Crew is scheduled to work along the Bernal Cut Path on Saturday, August 3rd. We’ll meet at the Richland Avenue Bridge at 9:15 a.m. and then work south from the Richland Bridge, heading down toward St. Mary’s Avenue.
Neighbors are encouraged to participate! The Parks Alliance crew will arrive around 9:15 a.m. and work through to 2:00 p.m. (with a 45-minute lunch break somewhere within that time frame).

Also, in other ridiculously charming superhyperlocal news, the newsletter tells us:

Save the date: 8/25 is our next CHNA meeting—and we’re planning a block party!
As you may recall from last year, we try to make our end-of-summer meeting a social one. Last August, Lia and Patrick on College kindly hosted a potluck barbecue in their backyard. This year, we’ve applied for a permit to hold a block party on the “unit block” of Park Street, the cul-de-sac between Mission and the Bernal Cut Path (where the Precita Eyes/kid artists’ mural was recently installed). We’ll find out on 8/8 as to whether the team of city agencies has granted the permit; our backup plan is a neighbor’s backyard. So please mark your calendar for 8/25 and join us in getting to know our neighbors!

PHOTO: Bernal Cut, via College Hill Neighborhood Assocation on Facebook

Friday: A Special Wine and Food Pairing at 903 Cortland

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Attention oenophiles! And foodies! And oenophiles who are also foodies! Or vice-versa!

Neighbor Alder Yarrow is the founder and editor of the glamorous Vinography wine blog, and he’s underground-famous in Bernal Heights for the enthusiasm he brings to organizing neighborhood events that combine good wine with friendly mixing and mingling.

Recently, Neighbor Alder joined forces with Neighbor Mutsumi Takehara from 903 Cortland to launch “Taste of Bernal Heights,” a series of cozy wine dinners during which 36 people (in two seatings of 18 each) get the opportunity to taste some primo vino while Neighbor Alder acts as resident sommelier/entertainer for the evening.

The pilot event was a big hit a few weeks back, so now Neighbors Alder and Mutsumi are doing it again this Friday, August 2:

Alder will be pouring hard-to-find wines from four of California’s hottest Pinot Noir producers to accompany an Asian-influenced, five-course menu created specifically for the evening by Mutsumi Takehara of Sandbox Bakery and 903 restaurant.

Alder will serve as host and sommelier for the evening, and will be available to answer your questions about the wines. Two seatings will be available: 5:30-7:30 and 8:00-10:00

MENU:
Stuffed Shishito Peppers with Shrimp plus Seasonal Fish Carpaccio
Farro Salad with Mint and Kaffer Lime
Mary’s Organic Roast Duck with Five Spice and Bing Cherries
Niman Ranch Pork Loin with Sautéed Mushrooms
Pinot Noir Poached Peach with Thai Basil Parfait

WINE PRODUCERS:
Peay Vineyards
Jamie Kutch Wines
Red Car Wines
Chanin Wines

Tickets are required, and you can get ’em right here… while they last.

ILLUSTRATION: Telstar Logistics

Tonight! Virgil’s Sea Room Patio Grand Opening Party

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Important drinky news from our new neighbors at Virgil’s Sea Room on Mission at Precita: Just in time for fog season, Virgil’s is ready to open up their backyard patio, and they’re having a grand opening party tonight to celebrate.

Co-owner Tom wrote to Bernalwood to invite you:

I wanted to be sure that you had all of the information about the Grand Opening Patio Party we are hosting at Virgil’s Sea Room on Friday evening July 26 from 7pm-close. Our gorgeous patio is ready for your outdoor drinking pleasure so come celebrate under the stars with us. We are pulling out all the stops to welcome you into our new backyard with a tasty pop up food vendor, photobooth, free giveaways and more at our patio opening party presented by The Bold Italic.

PHOTO: via Virgil’s Sea Room on the Facebook