The 2010 winning sculpture of a dragon from Rooftop Elementary School & Swinerton Builders

It’s time again for the annual LEAP Sandcastle Contest on Ocean Beach where teams of architects, engineers, contractors, designers, corporations and local elementary school students come together to build awesome sand sculptures.

Before the event, architects and builders meet with students in the classroom to develop ideas based on a set theme. Plans are finalized, clay models are shaped, team structure and schedules are defined, and tasks are assigned, all in preparation for the big day.

This year’s theme is “Sandblast” so expect lots of creative ideas! The event begins at 10am and teams have 4 hours to build their masterpieces on the shore of Ocean Beach. By the afternoon, the beach is host to a wonderful mix of creatures, structures and characters.

LEAP is a local nonprofit organization that provides quality arts education programs for students. Their art and architecture residency programs provide thousands of elementary and middle school students with hands-on learning experiences that enhance their overall education and prepare them for future success in school and in their communities.

Last year’s contest fundraised $222,000 for LEAP, making it possible for them to serve 6,500 students in over 27 schools across the Bay Area.

Competition is stiff in this contest. For two years running, Rooftop Elementary School and Swinerton Builders have taken the top prize. Their Chinese dragon was the hit of the beach last year.

The 28th Annual LEAP Sandcastle Contest (the largest in Northern California!) takes place from 10am until 4pm on Saturday. If you want to just see the finished sculptures, I recommend arriving around 2pm or 3pm. Be sure to bring your camera – it’s sandtastic!

Sarah B.

David Yapp – Summer Fog, Lands End: Oil on Canvas

This weekend, artists all over the Richmond District will be opening their studios to share their work as part of the annual San Francisco Open Studios event.

Twenty artists from the neighborhood are participating this year, displaying art in a variety of mediums including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media.

Use the map below to scope out the artists – click a marker to view their info or scroll down to see the list of artists. There might be one just around the corner from you!

Stop by any of these artists’ studios on Saturday or Sunday from 11am until 6pm to check out their work. No appointment needed!

Other neighborhoods participating this weekend are the Sunset, Duboce, Upper Noe Valley, Hayes Valley, Haight, Diamond Heights, Buena Vista, Mount Davidson, Twin Peaks, West Portal, and Glen Park.
Download the full Weekend 2 Map & Guide

This is the 36th year for the Open Studios event, which features 900 artists across the city and runs through October 30th. To see the other artists and neighborhoods participating, visit the event website.

Happy art-ing!

Sarah B.

Sonya Lee Barrington – Sea Stars. 100% wool; 60″ wide x 48″ high

Fong Fai – Nature Phenomenon: Acrylic on canvas 48″x36″

John Mickelson – “Tree Study III”: Archival pigment ink print on Hahnemuhle fine art paper. (18″ by 12″)

Next Thursday, October 6, the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate is hosting a special event for Amy Stewart‘s newest book, Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects.

Stewart’s earlier book was the inspiration behind the current Conservatory Exhibition “Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues & Assassins”, which closes on October 30. The show features over 30 species of wicked plants that look harmless – often even pretty – but have highly poisonous, even fatal, properties.

Stewart took the same approach with her new book. From the horrific to the bizarre, the book documents the strange places bugs appear in pop culture, relationships, science, travel and, last but not least, the garden.

Stewart will talk about her new book at the October 6 event, and attendees will also have a chance to attend the Wicked Plants exhibit.

The event runs from 7pm until 8pm and Admission is $12. But because you read this blog, you have a chance to win a free pair of tickets! To enter, use the contact form to send us an email with your information. We’ll pick a winner at random from the entries we receive. Entries are due by Monday, Oct. 3 at 5pm.

Good luck! And watch out for those wicked bugs…

Sarah B.

Golden Gate Park is busy this weekend with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass going on at Speedway, Lindley and Marx meadows, free days at the Academy of Sciences, and the 12th Annual World Veg Festival at the County Fair Building.

The World Veg Festival is a two-day celebration of all things vegan, vegetarian and everything in between. The festival features informative lectures by the movers and shakers of the vegetarian movement plus creative vegan cooking demos; international cuisine to sample or buy; vegan friendly merchandise; a Children’s Corner; Veggie Speed Dating; a Vegan Fashion Show; and a variety of world entertainers.

Some of the outstanding speakers are John Robbins, Jeffrey Masson, Rory Freedman, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Greger , Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. Milton Mills, Dr. Anteneh Roba, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, & more!

View the full festival schedule

The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm at the County Fair Building in the park (9th & Lincoln).

Admission is free if you arrive in the first half hour, after that it is $8 for adults. Children under 12 and seniors are free all day long.

Sarah B.

This weekend, several schools in the neighborhood will take advantage of the influx of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concertgoers to raise some much needed funds.

This weekend, the following schools will offer all-day parking for $25 (tax deductible!):

Argonne Elementary School, 17th Avenue & Cabrillo
Saturday & Sunday 9am-8pm

Lafayette Elementary School, 36th Avenue & Anza
Saturday & Sunday 10am-8pm

Presidio Middle School, 30th Avenue & Geary
Friday 5pm-9:30pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am-8pm

For all of the schools, these concert parking fundraisers have helped fill the budget gap for school programs. At Argonne, the funds they raise go to support reading and learning support specialists, art, dance, classroom supplies, enrichment programming, chorus and P.E.

The free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festivals takes place at Speedway, Lindley & Marx meadows in Golden Gate Park from 11am until 7pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Full schedule

Most of the lots fill up by noon so if you plan on driving, get there early to secure your spot!

Sarah B.

The ladies at Paul’s Hat Works got in touch to let me know they’re starting to plan for this year’s Haunted House that takes place in the basement of the Appel & Dietrich Market on 22nd & California every Halloween.

The free Haunted House is a neighborhood favorite, offering entry via a slide down into the basement. Every year the creative team puts on a fun yet spooky experience for kids and adults alike. Check out the above video at the 3:40 mark to see the spook-fest they put on in 2009; the theme was “Feary Tales”.

The theme this year is the “Grand Guignol,” named for the theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris that specialized in naturalistic horror shows from when it opened in 1897 until it closed in 1962. According to the Pauls, the goal is to create an “essentially bloody, spectacle of death with a guillotine, dungeon, courtroom, etc.” Goosebumps!

The Haunted House crew is looking for a volunteers to help build and paint sets, make costumes, or be an actor the night of Halloween. Any help is appreciated!

Interested volunteers should contact Kirsten Hove at hove.kirsten@gmail.com. Paul’s Hat Works will be hosting a recruitment party at the shop – 6128 Geary – next Friday, September 30th at 7pm.

Spooktastic!

Sarah B.

The poster for the 2009 Haunted House

Ahoy matey! Yes, you read that right. This Sunday from 10am until 6pm, pirates will take over Ocean Beach for mock battles and culinary celebrations.

Let’s allow the organizers, The Shire of Cloondara (“Recreating the Middle Ages as they should have been!”), to set the stage:

While the fighting still rages outside, the Shire is negotiating with the pirates. To impress them into thinking we can stand the siege for much longer, we need to prepare a feast using just the dwindling supplies in our larder.

Cooking, Rapier fighting Games and Pirates! Now bend your ear to this! Our beloved shire is under siege from traitorous swivel tongued pirates! We have successfully negotiated a parley, but our pantries are depleted. Come and defend our Shire’s honor or join the pirates and help decide if these scurvy knaves can be defeated! We need siege cooks to concoct a feast fit for kings! This siege has been long and both the ships and the town have found the pantries depleted. So we send out this call across the land for the best siege cooks to come and prepare a feast for our parley.

The event is open to the public ($5 per person), and participants are requested to try and wear medieval garb or a pirate outfit (some loaner clothing and combat equipment will be available on site). C’mon, you know you’ve got an old eye patch in your Halloween box…

Cooking will be done over fire pits and will include an Iron Chef type scenario – cooks will have to prepare the feast using five mystery ingredients (as well as some form of salt meat and staples such as flour).

In case you do plan to stop by, mind the schedule so you’ll know when they’ll be battling and when they’ll be imbibing:

Pirate Siege & Cook-Off Schedule
10am: Site opening & set up.
11am: Armor inspections & cooking competition fire set-up.
11:30am: Rapier Scenarios.
Noon: Cooking begins.
1pm: Potluck lunch & open bardic
4pm: Cooking judging.
6pm: Site close.

Don’t forget to bone up on your pirate speak – you want to fit in, don’t you?

Sarah B.

[via SF Funcheap]

This Saturday, the Richmond District Neighborhood Center will host a “fiber fair”.

And no, before you start making fun, it’s not about getting your digestive system in order! It’s a fair about spinning, weaving, crocheting, knitting and dyeing with natural fibers. There will be hands-on workshops, demos and more fun to keep the entire family entertained.

The festival is part of How-To-Homestead’s 11 in 11 tour, designed to teach homestead skills to communities across the city. How-to Homestead is a multi-faceted arts organization that has at its center the creation, curation, and distribution of short films dedicated to 21st century homesteading. They’ve got all kinds of videos on their site like how to make a compost bin, how to home brew, how to vermi-compost in your apartment and more.

Saturday’s fiber fair is free and open to all ages. It takes place at the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, 741 30th Avenue, from 10am until 3pm.

Sarah B.