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RIP: Spain Rodriguez, Underground Cartoonist and Bernal Heights Neighbor

/ Todd_Lappin / 7 Comments

Bernal Heights just lost one of its creative greats. Underground artist Spain Rodriguez died yesterday at his home just off Precita Park.

Here’s the lede from the SF Chronicle’s obituary:

Hard-charging biker. Class warfare revolutionary. Pioneering underground cartoonist.

Loving family man.

That was Spain Rodriguez.

From his role as one of the original Zap Comix artists with Robert Crumb, to his work as a founder of the Mission District murals movement in San Francisco, Rodriguez influenced generations of cartoonists and illustrators with a gritty, in-your-face approach to urban life.

He continued to do so until his death Wednesday at his San Francisco home – inking a poster printed this week for a concert honoring the labor movement and Woody Guthrie.

Mr. Rodriguez was 72, and had battled cancer for six years.

“He was an archetypal character, somewhere between crazy artist crossed with left-wing radical crossed with working-class Latino hood,” Crumb, who lives in France, said in a documentary made this year by Mr. Rodriguez’s wife, journalist and filmmaker Susan Stern. “He had a big influence on me through his artwork.

Laughing Squid carried this statement from Last Gasp founder Ron Turner about Spain’s death:

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing this morning of Spain Rodriguez. He passed at home with his daughter and wife at his bedside at about 7 this morning. He had been fighting cancer for a long time. He was a wonderful father, husband, and friend. His art challenged, changed and enlightened and entertained us for over five decades. His passing coincided with the penumbra eclipse of the moon, like Spain’s shadow from the outer edge of the art world’s face. Services are pending, please give the family some time.

You can listen to Art Spiegelman talk about Spain’s significance.

On Our Backs co-founder Susie Bright, Spain’s former neighbor in Bernal Heights, has written a wonderfully vivid remembrance of him.

She also points us toward the abovementioned documentary about Spain’s work, created by his wife Susan Stern:

Finally, here’s a drawing Neighbor Spain did of Sutrito Tower (long before we decided to rename it that). He will be missed:

Sutrito Tower, by Spain Rodriguez

PHOTOS: Top, Spain Rodriguez, via The Beat. Bottom, Sutrito Tower drawing by Spain Rodriguez, via “San Francisco’s Bernal Heights” by the Bernal History Project.

Meet Melinda and Jason, Your New Bernal Neighbors

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Stars implode. Galaxies collide. Planets are formed. Somewhere, a baby is born. Old neighbors move away, and new neighbors move in. As part of Bernalwood’s occasional series of New Neighbor Interviews, we try to get to know some people who recently moved to Bernal Heights. This week, let’s meet new neighbors Melinda and Jason.

Name: Melinda and Jason
Move-In Date: April 2012
Bernal Address: Peralta Street
Came Here From: Most recently, SOMA. But we moved to SF just over a year ago from North Carolina.
Rent or Own? We own; it’s a cute 2 BR that’s almost 100-years-old.

What do you do for a living?
I work as a homeland security consultant and my husband is a financial analyst. I just started working from home, so I spend a lot of time in the neighborhood now!

Why Bernal Heights?
We searched all over the city for several months and quickly determined that Bernal was the perfect fit for us. I needed the sunshine and we both needed the convenience to the BART, Muni and the highway.

First impressions of the neighborhood?
We read that Bernal was fun and funky, and our first visit to Cortland affirmed it! After hanging out around Precita Park, we knew that the North Slope was going to be our stomping grounds.

You’ve moved around a lot during the last few years, all over the country. But now you own a home here. How does that feel?
It’s our first time living on the West Coast and in a more temperate climate. It’s taken a bit of adjusting to the lack of traditional seasons. One thing that made me feel right at home was our gorgeous Magnolia tree on the street. It took me right back to some of my favorite landscape elements of the South! As homey as some of it feels, there’s no mistaking we’re in San Francisco with those views of the Marin headlands and downtown.

Any unexpected surprises after you moved in?
Outside of a few “This Old House” type issues like a few leaks, nothing too surprising.

How would you describe Bernal Heights to a friend from out of town?
I tell them that it’s residential and quiet — a sanctuary from the bustle of downtown. I also tell them that it’s absolutely charming and they should come visit!

What are your biggest concerns about your new neighborhood?
What business is going in on Folsom at Bessie, near Charlie’s Cafe and the laundromat? (A wine bar or pub please, Charlie!)

Name your three favorite things about Bernal.
1. It has all the benefits of the city, but it’s a closer-knit and quieter residential neighborhood.
2. I can see the hill from my kitchen window and quickly ascertain the weather while I brew my coffee.
3. The sun! As i watch the fog roll across the city, I sit pretty in a little patch of sun 🙂

Name three things you wish Bernal had (but which it currently does not)?
1. A gondola to the top of the hill (for when I feel lazy but still want the view).
2. A bar on Precita Park (see concerns above!)
3. I can’t even think of a third!

PHOTO: Melinda and Jason

Two Must-Read Articles by Bernal Heights Journalists

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Though you’d hardly know it from the paltry number of then who have written for Bernalwood (AHEM! Hint! Hint!), Bernal Heights is home to several celebrity journalists who write for glamorous national publications.

For example, Tim Dickinson is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and he covers National Affairs from the magazine’s Bernal Heights bureau. Neighbor Tim just published a thoroughly reported piece that reveals how Mitt Romney used a federal bailout to rescue Bain Capital from financial collapse in the early 1990s:

Government documents on the bailout obtained by Rolling Stone show that the legend crafted by Romney is basically a lie. The federal records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Romney’s initial rescue attempt at Bain & Company was actually a disaster – leaving the firm so financially strapped that it had “no value as a going concern.” Even worse, the federal bailout ultimately engineered by Romney screwed the FDIC – the bank insurance system backed by taxpayers – out of at least $10 million. And in an added insult, Romney rewarded top executives at Bain with hefty bonuses at the very moment that he was demanding his handout from the feds.

I know, right? What a surprise. Oh, and you’ll never guess who also loved loved loved Neighbor Tim’s article:

Wow. SO SEXY!

Meanwhile, you should also read yesterday’s New York Times piece by Bernal resident Chris Colin. Neighbor Chris tells Bernalwood, “This happened in Bernal, but isn’t about Bernal.” It’s a tale about a Craigslist transaction that went wrong after Chris got stiffed for 50 bucks by a buyer who never paid for the goods he received:

I didn’t care about the money. I cared about the abuse of this rare bit of fellowship. Hadn’t we carved out a morsel of old-fashioned San Francisco grooviness, at a time when the city seems to be pivoting into something less wild? Less wild and more coolly decadent, more $15 pickle plate-ish. I wanted to believe we could still get down to naked trust for a night, take our hands off the PayPal handlebars.

A few more weeks passed. Another month. There’d been one e-mail promising to mail the check, then silence.

Maybe this is catching him at a hard time, I thought. But truth was, Joe seemed to be having a pretty normal time. With his ample tweeting and active Facebooking — well over 1,000 friends! — he allowed for robust stalking. There he was on a sailboat. On a golf course. With some bros. Dancing goofily. Doing his handsome face. Doing some artsy stuff. He looked like someone you’d gone to camp with. Apparently he works for some progressive-sounding start-up, the kind whose Web site speaks of community and so forth.

Check out the rest of Chris’s tale of Digital Age IOU woe here.

Artist Creates Summer 2012 Field Guide to Bernal Heights Males

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Neighbor Laurie brings us another one of her wonderful Bernal Heights watercolors. This time, she strayed from her usual focus on nature and wildlife to capture some anthropological insights about the plumage worn by human males, as seen recently on Bernal Hill:

Scanning some other things in my sketchbook last night, I discovered this sketch from the afternoon of July 4 that I had forgotten about. I was trying to use the same techniques for sketching walkers on the hill that I use for sketching birds in the wild: pick a typical pose, and add more details to the sketch each time the bird returns to that position. Also note some important details of coloring and position, and keep repeating them to yourself aloud so you can finish the sketch after the bird flies away (“neon green sweatband, neon green sweatband…”)

Ode to the Precita Playground Satellite Spinner

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The citizens of Precitaville breathed a big sigh of relief when we learned that the upcoming glamorous makeover of Precita Park would not jeopardize the future of the playground’s much-loved “penultimate satellite spinner.”

The satellite spinner has been here for a long time, and it occupies a special place in the hearts of many Bernalese.

Neighbor Orlando has also been here for a long time, and he recently wrote a moving ode to the Satellite Spinner that reveals it to be not just a piece of playground equipment, but an essential link to life’s essentials:

I am relieved and thrilled with joy that the “penultimate satellite spinner” is not to be messed with. I held on to it with a death grip as I learned to walk as a toddler,  fearing of a hard landing in the sand beneath it. I sat on it holding hands with a girlfriend, dipping our tender toes in the cool sand as a teenager when I fell in love for the first time. And not too long ago, I visited it as a middle aged man when I was grieving the end of my fathers hard life. It is included in the background of many sets of kodak film of two generations in my family. Family that have passed away as the years have gone by. The cars, clothing, and hair dos of the folks in these pictures tell the story of what life was like in the years when they where taken. This “penultimate satellite spinner” has outlived many of the playgrounds make overs. It will outlive me. I hope it is there for me to sit on as I approach the final years of my life. I hope and I wish that perhaps, as I grow older and my life comes closer to its end, it will be there so I can once again hold on to it with that familiar death grip that I learned so well in the beginning.

PHOTO: Precita Playground Satellite Spinner, June 2012, by Telstar Logistics

Jackie Jones Reveals Secrets of Her Famous Dancing Cat

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

It’s Friday, which means the Alemany Farmer’s Market will take place tomorrow — just as it has for about as long as anyone can remember. And for almost as long, the amazing Jackie Jones and Her Dancing Cat have been entertaining the crowds, and especially the kids

Recently, Vicky Walker from the excellent Bernal History Project interviewed Jackie Jones about her Farmer’s Market act, and the interview was published this week on (wait for it…) Catster, a fansite for cat lovers.

The article contains at least one bombshell: In it, Jacky Jones reveals that her freaky-awesome dancing cat actually has a name, and the cat’s name is Effigy. Which is kind of freaky-awesome.

Jackie says:

The cat’s name is Effigy, and she’s over 15 years old. She’s lavender — well, she’s supposed to be, but the sun has changed the color and now she’s pink. I wanted a cat because it’s something fun to look at while I play, because the music can turn off some people. And I don’t have good diction, so I don’t sing.

If you notice, she’s wearing a striptease outfit! She has a tasseled fringe and pasties. She might need eight pasties if I was being anatomically accurate, but I’m not into being anthropomorphic.

She also revealed that the cat has been equipped with a lethal self-defense system:

I don’t have much energy these days, so I play until about noon, 12.30. If I get a big crowd, I’ll play a bit longer. The kids are my bread and butter, as long as they’re well behaved. If I can get them dancing, that’s a plus. I have to keep an eye out, because some of them run up and hit or touch the cat. If I don’t watch that, they could pull off her arm and take it home.

Someone at the market makes long skinny balloons, and the kids go to hit the cat with them, but I’m ready for them now. I put a thumbtack on the top of the cat’s head! [Mimes small child’s disappointment at burst balloon.] “Waaaaaah!”

Vicky’s interview is packed with great details about Jackie Jones, her music, her life, and her influences. Read it to see this weekend’s Farmer’s Market from a very different perspective.

PHOTO: John Blackburn via Catster

Son of Stephen Stymiest Visits Precita Park to Learn About the Father He Barely Knew

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

Last January, Bernal Heights mourned the death of Stephen Stymiest, the homeless neighbor and gentleman who lived in Precita Park. This week, Stephen’s 21 year-old son came to Precita Park to learn more about the man he never really knew and visit the place his father had called home.

Reporter Zusha Elinson from the Bay Citizen was on hand to talk with Brent Lawson, 21, who last saw his father when he was 5 years-old:

On the last Sunday in January, weeks before Stymiest’s family learned of his death, more than 40 neighbors gathered at a spot in the park where he often spent his days. There were songs and cookies and eulogies, and the event was recorded in the neighborhood blog, Bernalwood.wordpress.com.

“It wasn’t until I heard about what happened to him that everything came out about who he was. And I learned a lot about him, about what a nice guy he was, how smart he was, how he enjoyed life,” Lawson said.

Dear neighbors, meet Stephen’s son:

The last part of the Bay Citizen story is heartbreaking:

“We all wished we would meet him someday, but you know. . . It’s just what happened,” Lawson said.

For the rest of the day, Lawson sat in the park where his father sat.

“This is where he was every day,” he said. “It might just be a regular bench to most people, but it’s more than that to me.”

The full Bay Citizen article is a must-read, and it also includes two more video segments from their interview with Brent Lawson.

On behalf of everyone here who knew Stephen, Bernalwood would like to extend our most sincere and grateful welcome to his son. Thank you, and thank you for coming to Bernal Heights.

PHOTOS: Top, Stephen Stymiest, via Telstar Logistics

Confirmed Bikini Jogger Sighting, Monday Evening

/ Todd_Lappin / 13 Comments

Reader Lynn from the Bernalwood Intelligence Agency shared three photos to document a confirmed Bikini Jogger sighting that took place on Monday evening at approximately 5 pm:

The Bikini Jogger was sighted doing several laps around Bernal Hill on Monday evening amongst hundreds of wondrous neighbors and dogs. The last picture is my husband, trying to fake like I’m actually taking the picture of him.

PHOTOS: Reader Lynn

RIP: Rose Cliver, 109, Bernal Heights Earthquake Witness

/ Todd_Lappin

The San Francisco Chronicle brings us the obituary of Rose Cliver, a former Bernal Heights resident (from Gates Street) who watched the city burn from atop Bernal Hill after the Great Earthquake of 1906 struck:

Rose Cliver was 3 years old on April 18, 1906, when the quake and resulting fire killed more than 1,000 people and ruined more than 28,000 buildings. When she died Saturday at a residential care home in Santa Rosa, she was 109.

She attended an annual commemoration of the disaster in 2009, and “enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame,” said her son, Don Cliver of Santa Rosa. She told The Chronicle that day that she and her family, who lived in Bernal Heights, had climbed Bernal Hill after the quake and “watched San Francisco burn.”

Don Cliver said his mother wasn’t supposed to live long after her premature birth, but was the picture of health thereafter. One of 13 siblings, she lived an ordinary life – marriage, homemaking, two children of her own – and enjoyed traveling and quarter slot machines in her later years.

The Chronicle notes that Cliver’s death leaves four known 1906 quake survivors.

PHOTO: via Bernal History Project

Memories of Stephen Stymiest Wanted by His Family

/ Todd_Lappin / 7 Comments

Bernalwood is a micro-local blog, but the same cannot be said for the global Interwebs which function as our distribution platform. And as a result, the story of Stephen Stymiest, the homeless resident of Precita Park who died on January 20, has now reached members of his far-flung family.

This morning I received a very moving note from Stephen’s former wife:

Stephen is my ex-husband, we were married for 19 years, and divorced since 1997.  We have three children, all now young adults.  As you may understand, it was the alcoholism which took over him and he abandoned all of us for a bottle.  Although we expected that he was homeless and would die to the disease, this was heartbreaking.  It has helped for us to read the beautiful things that were written about him.  He was a caring man, loved life, loved animals, loved people.  Thank you for sharing the story.  And, if there are any memories you have of him talking about his children, or any other stories in general, I’d like to be able to share those words with the children.

I’d like to help her. Dear neighbors, if you have stories about Stephen or recollections of your conversations with him, please use the comments to share them here, to preserve his memory so that his family might learn more about the gentleman we all remember.

Bernal Author Releases New Book, Does Glamorous Interviews

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

You heard about it here first (natch), but Bernal Heights author and Bernalwood contributor Elizabeth Weil’s new book, “No Cheating, No Dying,” is now available for sale at a bookstore near you.

In between, Liz has been engaged in an open relationship with the traditional media to help spread the word about the book. Let’s review some highlights.

She counseled 7×7 magazine:

Of course all couples are different, but what would you say are the most essential ingredients for a good marriage?
You have to like each other … and keep liking each other every day. And you have to remember that your spouse isn’t nearly as predictable as you think he or she is.

The San Francisco Chronicle said:

In “No Cheating, No Dying,” her astonishingly intimate, hilariously self-deprecating, vibrant and thoroughly modern memoir, San Francisco author Elizabeth Weil goes where no man and few women have gone before – deep, deep, deep into the quotidian agonies and ecstasies of a highly volatile yet solidly committed marriage.

In Slate, Liz said:

Slate: What was the most useful thing you learned from the marriage improvement project?
Weil: Our marriage is our marriage, and we need to have the best marriage for us. With a wedding, you sort of start down this road, from this more collective fantasy. But then ultimately there you are with the person you love in your little house, and you need to build the life that’s right for you.

Bernalwood Writer Discovers Secret to Better Marriage

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Here’s a star sighting of sorts: Bernalwood contributor Elizabeth Weil wrote a piece for the Modern Love column in last Sunday’s New York Times. In it she explains her awkward quest to, as she puts it, “make my good marriage better.”

So what’s the secret? Here’s how Elizabeth describes her formula for marital improvement:

The lesson finally sank in. The key to a better marriage, for us, was not to hew closer to the general, to try to grind away the quirks or to more faithfully try to emulate the early-21st century marriage ideal. The key was to embrace, not blunt, the specifics — specifics that in the end we couldn’t blunt anyway. Despite all of our trying, Dan and I had not ground smooth our individual flaws. Yet our marriage still seemed better, changed. Maybe through our striving we had become more generous.

Elizabeth has more wisdom to impart in her forthcoming book: “No Cheating, No Dying: I Had a Good Marriage. Then I Tried To Make It Better.”