Category: diaries

Our pal Broke Ass Stuart and the amazing artist Wendy MacNaughton teamed up to talk about what living in San Francisco means. In their Bold Italic feature, Stuart and Wendy captured all the flavors of San Francisco living. And that most definitely included our lives on public transportation:

It means riding the Night Owl and thinking you’re gonna get mugged by the teenagers in the back. Taking the 22 from the Marina to the Dogpatch and observing the city’s vast spectrum of existence. Sitting on BART and trying not to think about what lives inside those cushions. Riding Muni and seeing feats both beautiful and wretched within seconds of each other.

Click over to Living in SF Means at the Bold Italic and read all about who has a crush on the girl at Tartine, the better excuse for drinking Tecate, and all the other quirks that make San Francisco the center of our universe.

Songwriter and movie-maker H.P. Mendoza is like a lot of native San Franciscans in that he’s never driven a car. Whether by choice or necessity, it’s just a fact, and one that H.P. is rightly proud of.

Unlike most native San Franciscans, though, his dad drove Muni buses during H.P.’s childhood and adolescence. Naturally, H.P.’s relationship with our beloved transit is unique.

Colma: The Musical or Fruitfly really showcase H.P.’s uncanny ability to capture many aspects of our gritty urban existence, in playful melodies and hilarious rhyme.

The above clip is H.P. performing “Public Transit,” a song he wrote for Fruitfly. Here’s a taste of the lyrics:

As far as cities like this go.
There are none like San Francisco.
You can take it all apart by section.
Seven miles in any direction.

I’ll never be stuck in gridlock.
I’m fine with walking on the sidewalk.
If you need to get somewhere faster.
Sing along with the working-class bastards.

Public transit, every destination sits upon a track.
Put your faith in public transit, there’s enough of it to go around and back.

Have a listen, and we dare you not to get this one stuck in your head for the rest of today.