Events

Good Luck in Reno, Bernal Dads Racing!

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

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24 Hours of LeMons

Yesterday Bernalwood’s own road warriors, Bernal Dads Racing, loaded The Molvo on a trailer and headed out to Nevada for the weekend, where the team will compete in “Goin’ For Broken” at the Reno-Fernley Raceway as part of the 24 Hours of LeMons racing series. This will be a true 24 hour, nonstop racing event, so our mechanized gladiators (and their mutant race car) will surely be put to the test.

Happily, team member Stephan Zuercher reports the Bernal Dads got a heroic send-off on their way out of town:

Someone needs to dub a Bernal Dads remix of this, but in the meantime, this one is for the home team….

PHOTOS: Rat Finkand Telstar Logistics

Meet Your Mayoral Candidates on Cortland, Saturday

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San Francisco City Hall

The Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center has organized a meeting that will allow residents of the Dominion of Bernalwood to meet the candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring to become San Francisco’s next mayor. The session will take place this Saturday, May 14, at 515 Cortland Street from 9 am to 1 pm.

BHNC provides the complete details:

CONFIRMED ATTENDEES:

  • Bevan Dufty
  • Leland Yee
  • David Chiu
  • Joanna Rees
  • Tony Hall
  • Harold Miller
  • Robert “Bobby” Jordan
  • John Avalos

INVITED:

  • Michaela Alioto-Pier
  • Dennis Herrera (sending a representative)

We hope to engage as many community members as possible, and hope to incorporate as many of your questions during the Q & A portion of Community Congress. A few randomly chosen questions submitted through this form will be asked during that portion of our program. Because Community Congress is BHNC’s biggest membership event, we ask that you frame your questions within our three core advocacy areas of:

  • Affordable Housing
  • Health & Public Safety
  • Immigrant Rights.

PHOTO: City Hall by canbalci

Filmmaker, Attack!!! Submit Your Film for the 2011 Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Series

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Bernalzilla!

Look, there is a reason we call it Bernalwood — and it’s not just because everyone who lives here is glamorous and fashion-obsessed. No, it’s also called Bernalwood in part because our neighborhood is home to its very own film festival, and our festival is a very locavore affair:

Organizers of Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema™ are planning the eighth season of free screenings showcasing local filmmakers — August 31-September 4, 2011. Plans include an Opening Night & Preview, an evening Block Party, the Film Crawl on Cortland, a screening Under the Stars at Precita Park, and a closing night in conjunction with Salsa Sunday at El Rio. As in the past, it’s a full schedule of film and video, live music, local filmmakers and film-lovers mixing around the Hill.

So attention all you gonnabe Coppolas, Kubricks, Kurosawas, Spielbergs and Tarantinos: The submission deadline for the 2011 Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema is June 1. Get on it.

PHOTO: Illustration by Telstar Logistics

Music and Bottomless PBR at Wild Side West, Sunday

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

This musical event announcement arrived via the pneumatic tube that connects Bernalwood’s editorial facility with the outside world:

My name is Cristina and I perform music and make stuff under the moniker of The Heated. I wanted to let you know about a kick ass show coming up at Wild Side West for a great cause. This show is a benefit for three riders in the AIDS Lifecycle. Local (and all women) bands, The P’s & Q’s, The Heated and Tik-Tik Fly (a duo, one of whom tap dances!) will be performing. There will be bottomless PBR for a 10$ donation and there will be a raffle with a chance to win many rad prizes (like a Get Awesome tote bag printed by The Heated). And BBQ! Plus, who doesn’t love getting a little toasty in the afternoon? Here are the details and the flyer is attached.

Date: Sunday, May 1st
Location: Wild Side West
424 Cortland Ave
San Francisco, CA 94110
Time: 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm (music starts at 4:00 pm)

PHOTO: Courtesy of The Heated

Yum! Celebrate the One Year Anniversary of 331 Cortland

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331 Cortland
True confession: It took me a while to clue in to what’s going on at the 331 Cortland food market. It’s basically six gourmet kiosks congregated under one roof, but there’s more to the concept than just fancy food; 331 Cortland also acts as a kind of incubator for budding food entrepreneurs who want to get a start in the business with lower risk and relatively lower cost. They build their businesses, and we get to taste the R&D. Very cool.

331 Cortland is marking its First Anniversary this week, and you can join the celebration during an open house party on Friday evening, April 22, from 6 to 9 pm. There will also be a series of classes and presentations on Saturday the 23rd, beginning at 12 noon. Check out the complete schedule.

Meanwhile, Tablehopper brings a tasty status report on the 331 Cortland Class of 2011:

The one-year mark comes with some changes too as both El Porteño Empanadas and ICHI Sushi are ready to move on from the small business incubator site. El Porteño will focus on expanding their market presence at the Ferry Building and in Whole Foods Markets, while ICHI is busy with their new sushi bar.

Within the space, Paulie’s Pickling and Bernal Cutlery will be expanding their kiosks. Bernal Cutlery plans to offer a larger inventory of knives, and Paulie’s Pickling will increase their sandwich offerings (they’ve already grown from 4 to 12 sandwiches, including “Bernalogna” and beef brisket) and will add new items, like cookies from Debbie Does Dinner and rugelach from Black Jet Bakery. By the way, you can also nab Paulie’s pickles at Whole Foods Market on Haight, Home Restaurant, Smoke BBQ, Lilah Belle’s, The Liberty Café, and a couple local bars (The Dogpatch Saloon, Marlena’s, Stray Bar, and Wild Side West).

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

Talk to Your Police Captain at SFPD’s Ingleside Station, Tonight

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Police Telephone

Have a crime or public nusiance concern? Want to talk directly to our precinct’s top cop? Then you may want to attend the community meeting tonight at 7 pm at the SFPD’s Ingleside Station.

From the Bernalsafe mailing list:

The monthly community meeting at Ingleside Station is tonight, Tuesday, at 7pm. I encourage folks to attend since Bernal is often underrepresented. Last month, there were maybe 12 people total, so you can express your concerns directly to the captain very easily.

The information is here. The community room is to your left as you walk towards the main building.

(Ingelside Station address and directions right here.)

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

Sweet Scene at the St. Anthony’s School Benefit Car Show

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St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

I live on Precita near the St. Anthony’s church and parochial school, and I’m glad to have them as neighbors. For one, St. Anthony regularly plays church bells, which provides this part of Bernalwood with an excellent old world soundtrack. Also, the church parking lot occasionally plays host to badass car shows, which are a great scene.

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

The most recent show took place last weekend, and it was fabulous. A bunch of the local car clubs showed up to represent for the St. Anthony’s School Benefit, including The Last Originals, Inspirations, and The Road Lords,

The sun was out, the cars were beautiful, a live band was playing, the colors were popping, and the people were looking so so good.

Mother and Daughter

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

Metallic Flake Reflection

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

St. Anthony's Benefit Car Show

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Powered by Gasoline and Bacon, Bernal Dads Racing Brings Home Honor and Glory During 24 Hours of LeMons

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

It drove! It raced! And kind of well, even. Last weekend at Sears Point Raceway, our neighborhood’s own Bernal Dads Racing team tore up the track during the 24 Hours of LeMons in The Molvo (No. 243), a mutant crossbreeding of a Mazda Miata and a Volvo 240 wagon. They also brought their older car, The Whale (No. 245) a Volvo wagon emblazoned with stickers that make it look like a junkyard Who’s Who of Cortland Avenue.

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMonsI wandered up to Sears Point on Saturday with my 3.5 year-old daughter, and together we watched the Bernal Dads on the race course and in the paddock, where the team’s cars returned from time to time for maintenance, driver changes, camaraderie, and… bacon!

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

BDR team member Ben brings the final race results…

The Whale:
At the end of Day One, the car had to go under the welder to fix a broken exhaust pipe located under the middle of the car.  It was also in 3rd place in Category C so there was a concerted effort to make the pits stop as efficient and speedy as possible.

This worked well and in the mid-afternoon the Whale was first in class.  This was short-lived, however as about two hours from the end of the race, the bottom-end of the engine suffered a catastrophic failure. The car was pulled into the pit and it was quickly determined it was “Game Over” for the Whale.

The Molvo:
Also in Category C, the Molvo was just behind the Whale in the standings.  During the afternoon it made a similar climb through the group as the Whale.  Shortly after the Whale was retired from the race, The Molvo’s exhaust system suffered from a major leak which the race officials wanted rectified before it could return to the track.  The rear section of coffee cans were dismantled and the Molvo returned to the track.  If continued to finish the race but could not make any ground to unseat the winner of Category C (#8, a Yellow Opal Manta)

Going to the awards ceremony at the end of the Race, BDR took home the Judges Choice award for the Movlo.  The innovation and execution of the concept was embraced by the organizer Jay Lamm as well as the other LeMons Judges.

Congrats to BDR for a race well raced, and a prize well earned!

24 Hours of LeMons

I took lots of photos during Saturday’s race; you can view them all here.

Photos: Team with trophy, by Alex Zepeda. All other photos by Telstar Logistics

Meanwhile, Will Bernalwood Get Hit By a Radioactive Cloud?

/ Todd_Lappin


It goes without saying that the situation in Japan is upsetting. As fellow fault-dwellers, most of us feel a spontaneous sympathy toward others who endure the calamity and loss of an earthquake — and a 9.0 is a VERY big quake.

Then there was the tsunami. Luckily, that’s not too much of a danger for us, because a) Unlike Japan, most of California’s faults are located onshore, and b) We live on a hill that’s shielded from the ocean by an even bigger hill.

But Japan’s crisis may yet arrive on our front doors. Thanks to the out-of-control nuclear power plant at Fukushima (which, it should be remembered, was crippled by the tsunami, and not by the earthquake) it’s entirely possible that the disaster could reach us here — in the form of a radioactive cloud.

The experts say we probably don’t have too much to fear. But if you want to monitor the situation from the safety and comfort of your own fallout shelter, visit a special site created by the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics in Austria. They’ve built a series of animated maps that model the dispersion of the radioactive cloud. So far, we sit just beyond the nuke cloud’s reach:

But if things get even nastier at Fukushima, Bernalwood residents might want to check these maps regularly to know when it’s time to take precautions.

Meet Burrito Justice: Citizen, Cartographer, Historian, and Rebel Propagandist, TONIGHT

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Vicky from the ever-excellent Bernal History Project passed along an announcement about a presentation by our favorite local separatist, La Lengua’s own Burrito Justice (aka Johnny O). It’s no exaggeration to say Burrito Justice put La Lengua on the map — but the really sly bit is that he also created the very first map upon which La Lengua first appeared. (Shown above.)

The talk takes place TONIGHT at 7 pm the Bernal Heights library. Vicky says:

This month’s Bernal History Project meeting features a special guest. Burrito Justice, La Lengua’s resident citizen cartographer and historian, presents a slideshow and talk that will take us on a tour of Bernal and the Mission in the 1860s. There’ll be maps, photographs, and all sorts of computer whizzery.

Regular readers of Burrito Justice will have seen the recent debate over the Coca-Cola mural at Tompkins and Folsom streets, or the La Lengua and Bernalwood Co-Prosperity Treaty.

And if you don’t know where or what La Lengua is, come to the meeting and find out!

The presentation starts at 7 p.m. sharp in the downstairs meeting room at the Bernal branch library (500 Cortland at Anderson); turn left at the bottom of the stairs. As always, the meeting is free and open to all.

Yoga Reading, Yoga Stretching with Alternadad Neal Pollack

/ Todd_Lappin

Writer Neal Pollack wrote “Alternadad,” an all-too-poignant memoir about the challenge of being male and remaining cool even after having a kid. Since he now (presumably) has the whole parenting thing down pat, Pollack’s has turned his attention to yoga, while anointing himself the “Hot Jew of the Yoga Generation.”

Oy. In any event, Pollack’s new book is called “Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude,” and you can attend a reading by the Yoga Dude himself at Bernal Yoga on Cortland from 7 to 9 pm on Saturday, March 5, 2011.