Featured – Page 2 – Muni Diaries

Alexandria Love’s not-quite love story with bonus transit twist

March 8, 2018 Tara Leave a comment

This tale about relationshipping in your Roaring 20s hits home for all of us who wished we could find love—or that it would find us, as promised in the RomComs—but kept looking for it in all the wrong places.

Oakland native Alexandria Love is on the podcast today with her personal, cringe-worthy story from that time in her life, which comes with a bonus transit twist. When she’s not prompting us to marvel in half awe, half horror over our early-20s life choices, Alex is also a stand-up comedian, podcaster, and writer. She’s performed at some of the best venues in California, including Tommy T’s, The San Jose Improv, and Cobb’s Comedy Club. She is the current reigning champion of Tourettes Without Regrets’ Dirty Haiku battle with 5 victories under her belt. She was the sleeper hit at the Muni Haiku Battle at Lit Crawl in 2017, which led her to snatch top honors during a reprise performance at Muni Diaries Live.

Listen to Alex’s story here:
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Got your own very-SF strange and wonderful ritual, with or without Bay Area transit twists? San Francisco Diaries is looking for your personal stories about what it means to live here, and what makes our city “so San Francisco.” Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox is always open.

Pic by Right Angle Images

Category: AC Transit, BART, Featured, Funny: Muni LOLs, San Francisco Diaries Tags: muni diaries live, podcast

San Francisco Diaries: How I met the pigeon version of me

February 6, 2018 eugenia Leave a comment

Being an adult isn’t easy, especially when you live in San Francisco where “everyone is perpetually in their late-20s to mid-30s.” So when you’re 22 and end up in San Francisco alone, you do what anyone would do: Go wild and make age-22 type of mistakes.

“Looking back now, it’s a miracle I didn’t die. I got in a lot of shady situations. I lost my beloved leather jacket. I left my Blackberry in a cab. In recovery, they say you have to hit rock bottom before you can get better. But my rock bottom just kept getting lower and lower. I drunkenly ran through the surf on Ocean Beach at 1 a.m. and almost got swept out to sea. I hooked up with a Santa Con Santa on the back patio of Mad Dog in the Fog. I was 22 and alone and nobody was around to stop me so I kept going and kept pushing the limits of what I could get away with and still live.”

Today’s story is from Vivian Ho, who you may remember was the criminal justice reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle from 2011 through 2017. She’s reported on the Mario Woods shooting, the San Francisco Police Department, wildfires, and she recently published an incredible investigative piece called “A Life on the Line.”

She’s seen a lot of San Francisco, from the incredibly serious and life-and-death moments to the more quirky and offbeat happenings around town. This story falls under the more quirky side of the spectrum—and we’ve never felt more spiritually connected to the cooing pigeons on our fire escapes.

Listen to her story here:

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Special thanks to Vivian for sending over the first photo she’s ever taken with Drew, before the pigeons came into their lives.

You, too, can add an entry to our collective journal. San Francisco Diaries is looking for your personal stories about what it means to live here, and what makes our city “so San Francisco.” Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox is always open!

Category: Featured, San Francisco Diaries Tags: podcast, san francisco diaries

Coveting thy neighbor’s Walkman on Muni

October 24, 2017 eugenia Leave a comment

We don’t usually know how close we came to getting jacked on the bus. One rider, Curtis Richard Tom does. He recalls a unique o/h on Muni conversation that provided oddly, unsettlingly intimate insight into a would-be theft. Here’s Curtis:

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This happened back when cassettes were the main mechanism in personal music devices. I was using a recordable Walkman, with manual/auto level record, pitch/speed control.

I had some blank space at the end of a tape. I hadn’t had a chance to flip the cassette yet, so I still had my headphones on. Through the foam ear pads, I could hear the couple in front of me having a quiet argument.

“Yeah, it’s a nice one, but no,” said the girl.

“Why not?” Asked the guy.

“You see how tight it’s strapped up under his armpit?” My Walkman was webstrapped pretty close.

“Yeah, so?” he countered.

“You’re not getting it from him unless you knock him out. Subduing him might be possible, but it wouldn’t be trivial. Forget it.”

He looked me in the eye once. “Yeah, fine.”

I was done listening to the silent hissing of my blank spot of tape and finally flipped it like I hadn’t heard them.

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More overheard convos:
A misinterpretation of your “meaning”

Photo by @zacharyzito

Category: Featured, WTF: Weirdness on Muni

Listen up: The hottest new hip-hop tribute to San Francisco is here

October 9, 2017 eugenia Leave a comment

You heard it here first: the newest hip-hop tribute to our City by the Bay. This new song by longtime denizen J. W. Friedman is a musical diary entry encapsulating why a lot of us chose to live (and stay) here. Add this to your essential Yay Area playlist ASAP.

The exclusive new jam name-checks all things local: layering (seriously, you have to), intersections all over town, and the barge in the Bay just outside of AT&T Park.

Muni Diaries Live attendees might remember as J as Satellite High, who first blew our minds with a whole album dedicated to Muni (read the interview here and watch this live performance). Sharp-eared podcast listeners�may also recognize his name and style from our theme music.

Take a listen to the new tune:

J is also the cohost of the wonderfully snarky podcast, I Don’t Even Own a Television, wherein he and cohost Chris Collision read terrible books from beginning to end just so they can review them for the masses. To get an IRL sense of their sense of humor, come see Chris Collision at our Muni Haiku Battle, LitCrawl Edition this Saturday at Clarion Alley.

So does your street or Favorite SF Something get a shout-out in J’s new song? He sent us the lyrics so you can find out:

Category: diaries, Featured, San Francisco Diaries

Dad Life on Muni

June 18, 2017 eugenia Leave a comment

A post shared by Erin (@kirinqueen) on May 31, 2017 at 11:26am PDT

Sometimes you see a tender moment on Muni and it just really makes your day, like this sweet dad braiding his little girl’s hair. Thanks to @kirinqueen on Instagram for sharing this! And in case you missed it, for Father’s day, we have a new podcast episode featuring comedian Dhaya Lakshminarayanan on her dad’s take on Muni weirdos.

Feature image by @josephbergen on Flickr

Category: Aww: Cute on Muni, Featured

Those sexy springtime tales from Muni Diaries Live

April 20, 2017 eugenia Leave a comment

Can riding the bus bring together 200 people to cheer whenever they hear a Muni line called out? The answer is “100 times yes,” as we experienced IRL at the Elbo Room last Saturday at Muni Diaries Live. For this show, we brought some seriously talented storytellers who, like you, shares their tales of what it’s like to live in San Francisco, one Muni ride at a time.

We kicked off the show with comedian and writer Irene Tu, who was a Muni celebrity last year and turned her friends into last-minute paparazzo to chase that fame.

J. W. Friedman, the host of I Don’t Even Own a Television, reviews bad books on his podcast. For Muni Diaries Live, he brought his own Muni story of an unlikely, potty-mouthed hero on the bus.

Dixie De La Tour is the founder of Bawdy Storytelling, true stories of sexual adventure. And of course, one of those adventures took place on Muni’s 5-Fulton.

We brought back Baruch Porras-Hernandez, our Muni Haiku champion, to share his own Muni story.Because, as we learned that night, when you cajole your suspicious out-of-town friend into Muni, all the while guaranteeing safety and a blissfully uneventful ride — you may just be eating those words for lunch.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Vivian Ho has written thousands of stories about our fair city. But the one that everyone remembers, of course, is the saucy one that happened on BART.

Writer Na’amen Tilahun recalls one eventful evening in the Castro, and the potential dangers of solo inebriated Muni Metro rides.

The Muni Haiku Battle took a brief hiatus, but it’s back in full force! This battle pit current champ Baruch against Irene, whose mantel is lined with golden dildos she’s won from Tourettes Without Regrets in years past. So who took home the Muni Haiku title this year?

After some heated 5-7-5 exchanges (some involving Easter eggs in body cavities), Baruch was named victorious, taking/wearing home the newest trophy!

We’re pretty big on wearable trophies in recent years, which means obviously this trophy is a cape. Rather befitting of this poetic hero, we must say.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the show and shared your stories with us. Muni Diaries is made of your stories, so we truly couldn’t do this without you! Our next show is on Nov. 4, but if you get lonely without us in the six months in between, perk up your ears to the Muni Diaries podcast on iTunes and Google Play.

Photos by Right Angle Images.

Category: Featured, Funny: Muni LOLs, Muni Diaries Live

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