Search Results for: kurt schwartzmann

Your 2020 commute in 10 memorable moments

Leave a comment

Here at Muni Diaries HQ, we usually end the year with a fun and lighthearted “Top Most WTF Moments of the Year” type of countdown. But in 2020…where do we even start?

As shelter-in-place became a more permanent fixture of our lives, documenting life in San Francisco, especially via commute tales, took on a different meaning. We saw the uphill battle faced by so many small businesses and venues (like our beloved Rickshaw Stop), and the struggles of essential workers, particularly Muni operators and first responders—many of whom relied on Muni to get around. We’re grateful that we could help share those stories.

So here are some highly memorable moments from your commuter tales, in this Dumpster fire of a year.

Listen to the podcast episode:

Featured photo by @murkyvillagesf

Read more
Category: News, San Francisco Diaries Tags: ,

The Buena Vista gets beautified with art from Muni Diaries alum

Leave a comment

The Buena Vista is bringing their famed Irish coffees to Beach Street with its new outdoor dining space, featuring painting by local artists Deirdre Weinberg and Kurt Schwartzmann.

Both artists have been working on the panels at the cafe’s outdoor dining space since late July. Schwartzmann’s “love trees” paintings came from his current project, The Space Between Us Is Love. He says: “While we must maintain our distance from each other during this crisis, know that the distance that separates us is an expression of love that keeps us safe.”

Muni Diaries podcast listeners might recognize Schwartzmann from his story last year at Muni Diaries Live. At our live show, he shared the story of how he conquered his struggle with drug addiction and found his way as an artist. While he was unhoused, Muni became a refuge for Schwartzmann, who has lost sight in one eye due to complications from AIDS.

We’re looking forward to returning to The Buena Vista and watching the bartender line up glass after glass of Irish coffee at the bar. Meanwhile, enjoy the spiked coffee in their outdoor space, surrounded by paintings by two artists who truly embody the San Francisco spirit.

Category: Muni Diaries Live, News, San Francisco Diaries

Your weekend podcast list, Muni Diaries edition

Leave a comment

Finishing off week two of sheltering in place, we’ve gathered some fun stories from Muni Diaries Live alums for this weekend. The weather forecast predicts rain, and we hope these podcasts give you a little reprieve, and if you are able, please do support these storytellers and projects.

Learn more about San Francisco history with Shaping San Francisco. The good folks behind Shaping San Francisco are putting their walking and biking tours on pause, but you can enjoy being an armchair historian by listening to their free public talks at home. Topics range from “hidden San Francisco” to “Valencia Street as a Lesbian Corridor: Living Memories” and more.

How to support: Become a patron at Shaping San Francisco’s Patreon page.

Enjoy comedic podcasts hosted by reigning Muni Haiku champion Wonder Dave: Mental Health Comedy Hour and Nerd Rage: the Great Debate. Wonder Dave has reigned supreme with his 5-7-5 rhymes, but when he’s not writing public transit poems (which he really just does twice a year), he’s hosting some very funny, and very nerdy podcasts. Tune in to those podcasts to debate timeless topics like, “Which female superhero reigns supreme in the world of DC comics?”

How to support: Become a patron on Wonder Dave’s Patreon page.

An ode to Muni and BART operators who are working every day to get people from one essential task to another: listen to Kurt Schwartzmann’s story at Muni Diaries Live. Kurt told this story last summer about how Muni drivers provided him the only refuge when he was living on the street.

We’ll keep the stories coming here on MuniDiaries.com and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Photo by @mwichary.

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs

Muni Diaries Podcast

The Muni Diaries Podcast features stories told at Muni Diaries Live, as well as stories recorded in-studio for our spinoff project, San Francisco Diaries. To subscribe, find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or use this RSS link. Like our theme song? Our podcast theme music is by J. W. Friedman, whose talents know no bounds. Take a […]

Read more

Upcoming art show honors Muni drivers

Leave a comment

yellow_line_art_show

This weekend, SF artist Kurt Schwartzmann will put on a free show he calls “Yellow Line.” From the Facebook Event page:

[Schwartzmann’s 64] drawings were created to honor the Operators of S.F. MUNI who put up with SO much drama and still manage to keep our city moving, rain or shine. Media include Pen and Ink, Watercolor, Colored Pencil and Acrylic Pen on Watercolor Paper and Collage made from bus transfers, collected by the artist while drawing this series from February through July of 2015.

Details
Exhibit times: Saturday August 29, 5pm – 9pm
Sunday August 30, Noon – 4pm
First Congregational Church of San Francisco, United Church of Christ
1300 Polk St, San Francisco
Facebook invite
Admission is free

We hear you about drama. And uh sorry about that.

Category: News

Cheers to our 15th year, and a look ahead to 2024

3 comments

Happy New Year, Muni Diaries fam! 2023 was an exciting year for us as we celebrated 15 years of sharing your Muni stories. We hosted a special anniversary live show in November and designed a limited edition Muni Diary for you to document your transit stories. Our second annual Muni Diaries Art Market in December was another huge hit. The stories we shared this year ranged from hilarious to poignant, from chilling to inspiring: a bus operator’s ghost story; spoken word poetry on race and displacement through the lens of a Muni window; the ongoing search for a special Muni operator; an ode to a transit system that is at times barely navigable yet somehow manages to bring us together. We were also thrilled to share a two part series featuring San Francisco high school students performing their own original Muni poetry.

A heartfelt thanks from all of us at Muni Diaries to everyone who shared your Muni stories with us in 2023, sent us your bus photos, tuned in to the podcast, attended our live shows and art market, and helped us celebrate 15 years of Muni Diaries. What started as a college project has grown into an online journal of our shared experiences as transit riders and San Franciscans, and it’s still going strong 15 years later thanks to our irreplaceable community. We couldn’t do it without you.

We’ve got stories from our November live show, exciting in-person podcasting events, and more already queued up for you in 2024. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s on deck:

Have a Muni story you’d like us to feature in 2024? Email us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Category: reflection Tags:
1 2 3