Muni’s Got Your Ticket to the Gun Show 12.07.11
Octoferret says:
On the 76 line in the Marin Headlands.
My second favorite is ‘General Manager’ on the northbound 19-Polk.
“General Manager” is a great WTF-inducer. I have two others tied for first, though: the running ticker of gibberish and Sassy Muni Bus. Please Ho, indeed.
To answer your burning question, though, there is apparently a place called Rifle Range in the Marin Headlands. The National Park Service says you can find those purty Mission Blue butterflies there. Nowadays, it appears to function more as a venue/public space than a shooting range. Please give us a break for giggling, though, as we don’t see “rifle range” on many things around here.
Go ahead, make my day: drop some photo goodies in our award-winning (finalist-making) Muni Photos Flickr pool.
Video: Played out on the 19-Polk 11.07.11
A friend shared this video by Hail Mary Mallon the other day. The lyrical reference is to the 19-Polk, and the visuals are pretty cool. Contains some NSFW language.
Enjoy.
Art Therapy, Muni Edition 01.17.11
On a wild Flickr hunt, we came across this painting of the 19-Polk by Andy Stattmiller, an illustrator in the Mission, who has rendered characters on the bus lovingly. Note the sassy fishnet stockings about to step off the back door.
Andy also has a great painting of a packed 49-Van Ness and its stops on his website. Check it out.
The 19-Polk is your stage 01.11.11
Photo by Allio
Once, a few months ago, I was on the 19 pretty late on a weeknight and there was a group of folks congregating on the back. They had a microphone stand and were doing a stand-up comedy show while facing the back. I don’t really remember anyone’s routine as being particularly memorable, but the whole event was definitely out of the ordinary. I even captured the tail end of one guy’s routine on video, seen in the YouTube video above.
A week or so ago I was again riding the 19 through Civic Center and sitting in the back row of five seats. (Probably my least favorite seat location.) It was mid-day and was one of those days where few of us were working, so the bus was really light on office types and heavy on everyone else. One woman was in front of me and willing to engage anyone who wanted to listen on any topic whatsoever. Most riders picked up on this and kept the discussions to a minimum. One goth type guy, however, was all too happy to be engaged for reasons which (to me) quickly became clear.
After he commented that he was considering asking a butcher friend for some blood he could use to spread on the bus floor to “make people scatter and free up some seats” (all together: “ewwwww”) he engaged talkative lady. The two of them quickly worked up a conversation about Anton LeVey and the church of Satan. (Apparently Sammy Davis Jr. and Ann Margaret were big fans and the stupid public who appreciated their art would never have appreciated their fandom of LaVey. Also, LaVey was just trying to “push the envelope in the name of art to see what people would do.”)
Which is all well and good. Who can’t use some really loud colloquy on the 19 about the church of Satan? And, hey, this is what the iPod was made for. But what really got me was an aside from the goth guy, something about how “the singer in my band agrees with me” about something. Not “a buddy of mine” or “a friend of mine” but the “singer in my band.” Yes, this guy was dying to be asked about his band. And once talkative lady picked up on the band and asked, well, we were off to the races.
We were all treated to the details of “the band” even though they apparently haven’t recorded anything or ever performed publicly. They do know the bouncer at some club though (I forget which). Because otherwise the talkative lady was prepared to make an introduction.
Maybe we can get them a gig on the 19.
Muni Missed Connections: Cupcake Edition 05.20.10
Photo by Flickr user Aaron Landry
We begin this latest round of Muni Missed Connections with a tale of cupcake kindness on the 19, of all routes:
u gave me a cupcake b4 u got off at 24th or 25th, thought that was really sweetie, would b nice if every1 on the 19 was sweetie like u, prob wont c u again since I’m not on the 19everyday(thank the lord) so its a good thing CL has this section4u2find me, very sweet
Next, this 30-something might have found his cougar siren, reading The Leopard, no less, on the mysterious 39L:
You’re probably a good 20 years older than me (and likely far too classy for the likes of a tattooed ne’er do well like myself), but every time I see you waiting at our bus stop, my heart starts racing…we almost always sit across from each other, if not very close, and every time I can’t keep my eyes off of you. You’re elegant, sexy, and I imagine what it’s like to be with you every time I see you… Thanks for making me feel alive! (and if you’re ever feeling daring…well, you get the idea)
Photographer Kristen Holden: Love Stories on Muni 04.26.10
Photographer, poet, and model Kristen Holden‘s pictures of Muni riders have caught our eye for a while. We found her on Flickr as “SFLoveStory” and tracked her down to find out what makes Muni such a great subject. Holden grew up in Chicago and has lived in San Francisco for almost seven years. She lives in Russian Hill with her musician boyfriend and their “talentless dog.”
What is it about Muni that inspires you to take photos there?
This simple answer is: I ride a lot and I shoot my surroundings more than I do anything else. But what makes Muni rife for photographic capture is that the exterior environment is always changing around the same structure or, like, bones of the scene. There are endless characters to make up stories about.
What’s it like taking pictures on Muni?
I think people generally assume I’m a tourist. Once in a while someone will ask me about my camera and why I shoot film (I’m currently shooting with a second-hand Canon EOS Elan II SLR with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.)
Got a favorite Muni line?
I ride the 45 and 30 to get from Russian Hill, where I live, to downtown and vice versa. I take the 47 and 49 quite a bit. Oh, and I’m one of those weird people who actually rides the 19…it gets the closest to the film-processing center I go to in SoMa. I love the cable cars and streetcars too. The mint-green colored streetcar from Brooklyn (Car 1059?) is my favorite.
You can see more of Holden’s photographs on her website, Kristen-Holden.com.
19-Polk crash injures 9, including bus driver 01.05.10
Photo by Flickr user Allio
Final update 11:45 a.m.: SF Appeal has MTA’s statement, which clarifies that both the bus driver and the driver of the truck suffered injuries that sent them to the hospital. Five passengers were also sent to the hospital, and two were treated on the scene, as originally reported.
Update 9:20 a.m.: The Examiner and NBC both say that the bus driver was among the injured. Consensus forming around that report, we’d say.
Update 8:01 a.m.: CBS 5 reports that the bus driver was among the injured. ABC 7 reports that the “driver” who was injured wasn’t the bus driver, but the driver of the truck. We’ll try to sort that out. Still, six bus passengers were sent to the hospital, and two passengers were treated at the scene.
Original post: SF Appeal and others are reporting an early morning crash involving a 19-Polk bus and a truck near 18th and De Haro (Potrero Hill neighborhood).
More details as they emerge.
Why Some Muni Drivers Refuse to Do Anything When Something Bad Happens 09.09.09
Photo by Flickr user Jeremy Brooks
The stabbing of an 11-year-old boy on the 49 prompted Muni rider Whole Wheat Toast to send us the following letter.
We’ve all been there before when someone was being assaulted or robbed on Muni. But remember when the kid was stabbed on his very first solo Muni ride? What did the driver do? It doesn’t say in the article. When a middle-aged couple were robbed by a group of sketchy people on the 47, did the driver intervene? Well, it’s possible we all know why the driver doesn’t intervene, but if you do, I’m going to rant about it anyway.
Anyway, I’ve personally known some Muni drivers. But those that I don’t, I’ve seen them get assaulted if they intervened. For example, I was on the 19 just last week heading to the Bayview Pot Fire, when some guy by the Potrero Hill Projects wanted to board the 19. The driver said “This is not a stop” and kept driving. The guy followed the bus. When the driver finally let him on at Wisconsin and 26th, the guy yelled in front of the driver’s face as if he was spitting at him, saying, “You don’t be fucking with me”, or something like that, I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I think he made a death threat to the driver, I don’t remember. But all I remembered was he just stepped on, and went to the back, yelling incoherently, making death threats to the driver, etc. But, the driver just brushed it off.
However, this would be a different case. I knew this driver who used to work at Woods Division, on the 44, at night. When he saw a person run for the bus, he would stop for them whether or not it would be a bus stop. Otherwise he thought he was going to endure retaliation next time around. As soon as he got seniority, he took the first available opportunity to transfer to another division. I won’t reveal what division he works at now.
The same applies to fare-evading. Just last Saturday when I was heading home on the 19, some kids got on at 23rd and De Haro and just went by. And they were under 12. And the driver didn’t do anything about it. Why? Obviously because they’re afraid of being assaulted by some lowlifes who refuse to play by the rules!
So, to wrap things up, most Muni drivers probably don’t want to do anything - not because they don’t care, but probably because they’re afraid of being assaulted if they intervened themselves. Not only that, if they were assaulted, there would be paid sick days, but most can’t afford paid sick days because most have to work to make ends meet.
Updated with Editors Note: Cobra Malt Liquor Through a Straw 08.26.09
A lot of you objected to the publication of a photo that rider Matthew took on the 19-Polk, of someone who he thought was a dead-ringer for Whitney Houston. Your comments are really valuable to us at Muni Diaries as we constantly walk the fine line between democratic forum and editorial integrity. We don’t often turn your posts away because we want to create a place where you can tell your stories, but we definitely don’t want to do this at someone’s expense. We’ve taken the picture down but left the text of the story here in the post. Agree or disagree with our decision? We want to know. Please tell us in the comments section. – Jeff and Eugenia
Original post:
Muni rider Matthew writes to tell of a possible celebrity-sighting on a San Francisco bus.
Tell me this wasn’t Whitney Houston! She was a “BOBBY!!” shriek away from a dead ringer.
Seriously, her makeup looked professionally applied, if a little too glittery for 3 p.m. If she wasn’t so wasted and her top wasn’t so stained with spilled liquids, I really would have thought it was the Diva Herself. God I hope those stains were just her drinks…
“Whitney” fell asleep long enough for me to snap her photo. She woke up soon after to root around in one of her bags for another Cobra Malt Liquor (which she drank through a straw, because as you can see, she is a LADY).
I can snap photos and poke fun because lord knows I’ve been that drunk lady on the bus a time or thousand.
Matthew has just become the first Muni-razzi. Seen any celebs or dead-ringers on Muni? muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com
Photo Gallery: Inaccurate or Outdated Muni Signage 08.13.09
Found this amazingly neato photo set on Flickr the other day. It was shot and assembled by Octoferret, to whom we owe a humble thank you. In light of upcoming Muni lines slated for extinction, we feel this is a moving tribute to the routes that time has forgotten.
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