On our way to work a few weeks ago, we noticed a group of punk kids painting in the alleyway around the corner from Community Thrift on Valencia Street. They were painting bunnies on the walls. In broad daylight! We thought to our selves, "Look at those ballsy punk kids!" and continued on our way.

As we passed the same spot on our way home a few days later, we saw what looked to be the same group. For this round, however, many were dressed in slightly grubby bunny costumes -- not at all unlike the one forcibly worn by Ralphie in the 1972 cult classic A Christmas Story.

Conventional wisdom might encourage one to ask why, pray tell, a group of young kids would spend an evening drinking Tecate in an alleyway while wearing bunny costumes and circling one another on tricycles. But this party didn't take place on just any Mission side street. Rather, it went down in the Clarion Alley, home to the Clarion Alley Mural Project, as established in October 1992 by a volunteer collective of six North Mission residents: Aaron Noble, Michael O'Connor, Sebastiana Pastor, Rigo 92, Mary Gail Snyder, and Aracely Soriano.