We picked the hottest day in San Francisco to host the hottest reunion show ever, and we were so glad that so many of you turned out to pack the Elbo Room! Our favorite past performers came back on stage to tell tales out of school, and some brave newbies joined us to share their Muni stories too. To beat the heat, Google Places was on hand to supply the first round. Let’s check out this happy reunion.
Our special guest Anna Conda kicked off the show by reading the winning review on Google Places by PuckPuck (above). PuckPuck’s review was hilarious, even better read by the glamorous Anna! PuckPuck also received a $100 gift certificate to Hog and Rocks. Read more
Poet and artist Joyce Lee is a force to reckon with, and if you have ever seen her perform (at the amazing monthly Tourettes Without Regrets in Oakland, for example), you know I’m right. But did you know Joyce’s mother is also an incredible force on her own? At the last Muni Diaries Live, Joyce talked about one memorable Muni ride with her impeccably dressed mother and a bunch of kids who didn’t know who they were dealing with.
I first saw Joyce at the Tourettes Without Regrets’ 10th anniversary show, where she knocked my socks off with her poem, “Crazy:”
“I’m only as crazy as my love is. And my love checks your Facebook every fucking day.”
Joyce has an upcoming poetry CD/DVD, her first professionally produced CD/DVD. She’s also got a Kickstarter page to help get the CD/DVD produced, so check it out if you liked what you heard!
Want more Muni Diaries Live? Check out our Muni Diaries Live event recap page and relive shows you might have missed!
You probably have heard of Mr. Kirk Read, cohost the open mics Smack Dab and Kvetsh, and an amazing storyteller himself. Here Kirk tells a story that happened on the 14-Mission at Muni Diaries Live 5.
I missed my preferred mode of Muni transportation, which I think it’s the only dignified way to ride Muni: the underground. Riding above ground you’re just open to all manners of humanity and criminality and indecency, really. I missed that, so I was left with a double bus on Mission — the 14. Exactly. So I step into my carriage…I went to the back of the bus because that’s where the most interesting people are. So that’s where I sit, in solidarity with the interesting people.
On this night there was nobody in the back of the bus, so I sit down. Then I hear this rustling and I look down, and there is this little pile of fabric squirming on the floor. What is going on?! It took a minute and I realize it’s this little woman who was rubbing against everything, all up on the windows. It’s like when you’re on ecstasy and you really let yourself go. She’s not touching me because she has some manners. But she’s like touching the air, and I’m fascinated, and I’m just like, YES! I’m just gonna sit here and behold.
Watch the video to find out what happened in the rest of Kirk’s story.
We found Jesse at Muni Diaries Live: Breaking It Down in April 2010. He obliterated the audience storytelling portion of that night with his story of the Misfired Projectile in Tiffany’s Airspace. We stayed on the case, and got this unassuming, yet totally charm-your-pants-off young man back up on stage for his deserved full set.
At last month’s Muni Diaries Live, Jesse shared the story of withering away of innocence when it comes to riding Muni:
I grew up and went to high school in Southern California. I did what everybody else did — I drove a car … I graduated high school and I fled, like crazy. I went to San Francisco State. I didn’t even look at the school — I just knew it was in San Francisco and gay people live there!
And I encountered Muni. I encountered buses, and trains, and trains that did buslike things, and stairs, and all that craziness. I was flabbergasted, to say the least. Riding Muni was like riding a unicorn. It was like, “What??!? I get a transfer? This is so great! $1?” I’m dating myself.
I was that guy on Muni who was so in love with the experience that I was talking to people. I was like, “Oh my god, you shopped today? So did I!”
Watch the video above to hear the rest of Jesse’s gripping tale.
When Ariel Dovas casually mentioned that he had a Muni story he might like to tell on stage, I was already excited enough to have almost spilled my drink. But he followed it up by asking, “Well, is it ok if the story is kind of personal? Like, the bad kind of personal? The kind that really goes deep into that awful awkwardness about being a teenager?”
Ariel, you have no idea.
In this video, Ariel opens Muni Diaries Live’s third anniversary show with his very personal and very awesome story that happened his freshman year in high school.
“I never had a girlfriend before; I never kissed a girl before, but somehow I found out that this really pretty girl, this really cool girl who was a flutist, liked me. Like, like me liked me. I was just overwhelmed but somehow we ended up going out…I mean, going together. It wasn’t “going out” yet. I didn’t really know what to do. I mean, I’d never had a girlfriend before. But I knew some of the first steps that I had to do. So I got rid of all my friends, and spent all my lunches with her; I didn’t talk to anybody else, we held hands, and said I love you a lot. And I was like, this is a lot easier than I thought!”
Oh, but teenage love is never that easy. Watch the video for the rest of Ariel’s story.
Author Andrew Lam regaled us with some scenes from the bus at Muni Diaries Live last month. If you missed it, we’ve got him on this video clip where he tells stories from the 19-Polk and 47-Van Ness, involving a parrot and a very thirsty cousin. The curtains in the Make-Out Room cast a red light on our videos, but hearing Andrew’s provocative, nearly erotic tales, the lighting only seems appropriate.
Andrew will be reading from his new book, East Eats West, at the Book Passage in the Ferry building in San Francisco on Dec. 7, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.