A Muni Movie? Right in Our Backyard

 

ON IT – Behind the Scenes – Bus Timelapse from Shadow Angel Films on Vimeo.

A lot of urban life happens on the bus, and filmmakers Heather Donnell and Chris R. Smith are making a short film about just that. Their movie is called “On It,” and they’ve just rented a Muni bus last Sunday for some pivotal scenes, watch this time-lapsed movie.

So what happens on the bus in this movie? From Heather and Chris:

ON IT is about a relationship under pressure and the complications that get in the way of the couple’s attempts to communicate. Six months into their relationship, Craig and Angela each have something important to tell each other, but can they find the courage to say it? One bus ride changes the course of their relationship forever.

Hmm. Mysterious and intrigue!

Heather told me they rented the bus by working with the San Francisco Film Commission Office and the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency: “There was lots of paperwork to obtain the permit, but both organizations were extremely helpful at pushing it through. We had a great experience with the bus inspector and the MUNI driver on the shoot day too.” You can find out more about the movie and Heather and Chris’s other projects at the Shadow Angel Films website.

A Friendly Muni Trip From the Beach

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Photo by Whole Wheat Toast

Looks like there’s no sickout today. Phew. Earlier in the week: Delaine is new to Muni and San Francisco. One of her first brief encounters with Muni turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Hubby and I decided to try our Clipper cards on Muni, being fairly new to the city. It was hot in our apartment on the bay on one of those sunny days last week, so we decided to head to the beach. We took the first train that came into the Embarcadero station–L Taraval, which took us to the zoo entrance, but also Ocean Beach. After wandering around for awhile in the cool, cloudy, breezy weather, we made our way back to the waiting train, and stood on the platform, unsure of where to get on.

After awhile the driver came around the corner, and politely pointed out to us novice Muni riders that we needed to stand at the “bus stop” to be able to board. He also gave us tips on using the Clipper card. Didn’t catch his name, but he was so very nice. I know we hear stories about rude Muni drivers, but I just want to say that we have had good service with our brief experience. I love the idea of a card I can use on all transit.

There’s been some questions about the Clipper cards on our Twitter feed. Seems like time to update our Muni newbie orientation!

Weekend Photos: Before you can blink

Guilty Pleasures
Photo by Brandon Doran

It’s hard to keep our eyes away from the disaster in San Bruno. Meanwhile, in Muni news:

  • SFMTA Responds to Rumors of Muni Sickout, Warns Employees Not to Participate (SFAppeal)
  • Muni ‘Sickout” Flier’s Bold Threats (SFWeekly)
  • Muni Officials plan for worst, hope for false alarm (SF Examiner) (Full Muni sickout flier at SFist)
  • Anonymous fliers prompting concerns of sick out (SF Examiner)
  • Report: Muni collision rate has been rising (KGO-TV)
  • PERB Denies TWU Request for Injunction Stopping Muni Service Restorations (Streetsblog)

Next week we’ve got stories in the bag, thanks to all of your submissions, which made the first week of steering the Muni Diaries ship on my own not nearly as scary as I would have thought! Oh, and if you’re trying to figure out your plans for tonight, check out the opening party of The Classics, a “defining art exhibit featuring works by the true Bay Area graffiti art pioneers” at 1AM Gallery on Howard and 6th Street. I had a sneak peek of the show last night and saw that Muni makes several guest appearances in this amazingly curated show by Nate1.

Enjoy the t-shirt weather and these photos!

dot dot dot
Photo by Bhautik Joshi

Muni F-Market Boat Tram
Photo by Agent Akit

a book and a bike
Photo by Flickr user sxl

Muni in red
Photo by Daniell Lefebvre

Celebrities Riding the Subway


Keanu rides the subway, photo courtesy of BuzzFeed.com

Rider @Jashsf hipped us to this BuzzFeed post via Slate.com about celebrities riding the subway. Other celebrities spotted riding the subway include Hugh Jackman, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, and Madge herself. Check out the Buzzfeed post to see photographic evidence of them all (there’s even one hilarious picture of Rudy Giuliani taking up two seats.)

Unfortunately, judging by the photos, it looks like by “subway” they mean the New York City subway. Now, I don’t have to remind you the location of the actual center of the universe, do I?

Have you spotted any person-of-note on Muni?

Glazed and Confused


Photo by Lady in the radiator

100 Muni StoriesRider Ben sent over this diamond of a tale involving alleged porn stars, beer, and someone who thought he was Jet Li. Read on.

I’ve been riding MUNI for about 10 years now. My morning commute involves a three-way with the bus, the underground, and the F train. I used to wear headphones when on transit- it kind of lets you get out of the ugliness of being squashed with 1200 other people in a small, dirty, hot vehicle that starts and stops ease of a jackhammer. Headphones put you in your own world. But while I’ve had many, many terrible experiences on the bus, there’ve been some diamonds in there, too. This story is sort of a mixture of both, depending on which seat you were in.

I was waiting at a stop for the 21 last Saturday, wondering why I was even going out when I didn’t feel like it, and listening to a drunken conversation between two guys with huge fake mustaches. They had decided to explain their fake mustaches by telling people they had just come from a porn shoot, and were making up titles (their running favorite was Cumming to America). After the predict-a-bus said “Arriving” for about 15 minutes, and they’d come up with nearly every porn title ever imagined, the bus finally came.

Even when the bus is nearly empty like it was that night, I still like to sit in the back seats that face each other. The two mustaches followed to the seats across from me, and on the other side of the aisle an older couple sat across from a rather large, round, drunk hipster who somehow had a full plastic cup of beer. I hurried to sit down because I’ve been on the bus before, unlike the mustaches, and I knew that the bus driver likes to go from idle to 25 mph in half a second. Sure enough, the mustaches were scooped into the seats with a thump.

On the other side, the hipster’s beer had apparently sloshed forward (he was facing backwards), and he tried to “save” it by diving. In his drunkenness, he must’ve mistaken himself for Jet Li, when in reality he more closely resembled a garbage bag of oatmeal, and he sprawled onto the floor/old couple and completely covered them in beer. The lady gave a loud shriek and cringed, drenched, but the man stared forward without so much as a blink. The fat hipster was now on his knees, laying in the man’s lap, and everyone was very quiet for several seconds- I counted 3 drips of beer from the lady’s nose before anyone on the bus moved. Then the hipster looked up from the old man’s lap, saw how beer-soaked they were, and began giggling furiously. He didn’t even attempt to apologize as he peeled himself up off the floor and sat back down.

The couple waited until everyone finally looked away and then moved to another seat, embarrassed. The hipster was still giggling when he leaned over and told me “You know what the funny part is? The funny part (burp), the funny part is, I think they’re going to the same party as me.” I don’t know how he figured that, but when the old couple got off the bus two stops later, damned if he didn’t follow them. And he even looked up at me in the window and mock-splashed them again with the plastic cup, to a wave of laughter from the bus.

And then one mustache pointed to the poor couple walking away and said “Dude. Glazed and Confused.”

San Francisco Character – Vivienne, Muni Operator

Rider Madeleine sent us a story about Vivienne, who drives the 108-Treasure Island. Vivienne has been a Muni operator for 20 years and is “very humble as to the importance of her job,” Madeleine reports. Madeleine, who is Swiss, tells us one reason why she enjoys having Vivienne on her bus:

I like her calling me ‘sweetie.’ I know, this is nothing unusual around here, but given that I am Swiss and used to Swiss public transit operator attitudes, the idea of being called ‘sweetie’ by a Swiss bus driver just amuses me… they are waaay too stiff and formal to do something like that.

Vivienne told Madeleine about what happened during a graveyard shift on the 91-Owl when she picked up a man on Van Ness who said he had just been hit by a cab. Read the rest of the story at Madeleine’s blog, SFCharacters.

Got another Muni driver who made an impression on you? Let us know. Or even better, are you a Muni operator? We want to hear from you!

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