podcast – Page 9 – Muni Diaries

San Francisco Diaries: Fighting the power from WA to CA

October 29, 2019 Tara Leave a comment

Local activist and retired tradeswoman Molly Martin is back on the podcast with a story that starts during her revolution-minded college years in Washington state and takes us through the middle of the AIDS crisis in 1980s San Francisco. Molly is pictured above, back row, far right, in the fabulous crop top circa 1973.

She says this group, which called itself the Rosa Luxemburg Collective, is making a sign for No Way LPMA (the League for the Promotion of Militant Atheism). Larry, the central character in her intersectional story, is in the middle, hand outstretched. Here’s Molly:

Catch up with Molly’s other dispatches: a lesson in international relations on the 14-Mission, and the back story on how lesbians invaded Bernal Heights.

Subscribe to the San Francisco Diaries podcast, brought to you by the creators of Muni Diaries, so you don’t miss an episode. If you’re itching to hear stories like these told from the stage, our live show is back on Nov. 2 at Rickshaw Stop; tickets for Muni Diaries Live are on sale now.

Pic courtesy Molly Martin

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: 24-Divisadero, podcast, san francisco diaries

San Francisco Diaries: DJ Steve Fabus and the surprise farewell for disco legend Sylvester

October 22, 2019 eugenia Leave a comment

DJ Steve Fabus has been called “one of the founding fathers of San Francisco’s gay disco scene,” and we were lucky enough to welcome him recently into our podcast studio. In today’s San Francisco Diaries episode, he shares a story many of us have heard or seen secondhand but was 100-percent real life for him. He moved to the city as a young gay man in the 1970s. At the time, he said he and his friends felt there was “power in numbers” as the gay movement gained momentum…to say nothing about “this amazing party going on,” he recalls.

Fabus has enjoyed a long career that spans from the disco era to today. He started DJing parties at his own flat, just around the block from Harvey Milk’s camera store. Harvey Milk, disco legend Sylvester, and other counterculture luminaries like Peter Berlin, the Fabulous Cockettes, and Pristine Condition became regulars at his events.

As Fabus found popularity and success spinning at venues like the Trocadero Transfer and I-Beam, the AIDS crisis also started to affect many people around him. In today’s episode, he describes the evening he found himself in the DJ booth providing the soundtrack to Sylvester’s farewell party.

Listen to his story:

Subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast so you don’t miss an episode—and hear stories like these live on stage in just two weeks! Our live show is back on Nov. 2 at Rickshaw Stop. Tickets for Muni Diaries Live are on sale now.

Photo via Electric Soul

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: podcast, san francisco diaries

The city gardener’s family shares the tale of the AIDS Memorial Grove

September 28, 2019 eugenia Leave a comment

Before the area was named the AIDS Memorial Grove in the 1990’s, San Franciscans knew the wooded grove as DeLaveaga Dell. To Leef Smith, the area held special memories because his father was a city gardener who took care of the city’s parks. In today’s San Francisco Diaries podcast episode, Leef shares his childhood memories of growing up in San Francisco as the family of a city gardener, and how his childhood and this beautiful garden change when the AIDS crisis hit San Francisco.

Leef spent his childhood in DeLaveaga Dell playing with other children, wearing his mom’s homemade costumes and celebrating birthdays and other occasions there. As he was coming of age during a tumultuous in San Francisco, he recalls how a teacher came out to his class, and how DeLaveaga Dell became a symbol of the times to come.

Listen to Leef’s story here:

Leef kindly shared some of his childhood photos from De Laveaga Dell with us. Do you have stories of San Francisco during this time period? We want to know! Share your stories with us at muni.diarie.sf@gmail.com.

Want to hear more stories like this live? We are having two events this fall: a live podcast recording at the Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, Oct. 3, and our Muni Diaries Live fall show at Rickshaw Stop on Saturday, Nov. 2. Tickets are on sale now!

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

Live podcast event! Muni Diaries presents: Hidden San Francisco

September 24, 2019 eugenia Leave a comment

We uncovered thousands of Muni stories by exploring every nook and cranny—ew, not literally—of the commuter experience. Our next step is doing the same about the entire city. Those of you who’ve been following our podcast know this as our sister project, San Francisco Diaries, and it exists because we know that even after nearly 12 years of collecting stories, we’re just scratching the surface (also ew, not literally) of San Francisco living.

We’re returning to Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, Oct. 3, for an evening dedicated to “hidden San Francisco” with two special guests who have walked 49 miles of our city.

Kristine Poggioli and coauthor Carolyn Eidson became the first people known to have walked San Francisco’s historic 49 Mile Scenic Drive—not in one day (like these crazy cats at the Chronicle!), over one year. They did it by dividing the route into 17 bite-sized walks. At our live podcast event, we’ll chat with them about what they’ve found on their walk, and invite you to share some of your hidden gems too. Tickets are only $5, so grab one today.

Betabrand Podcast Theater: Muni Diaries presents: Hidden San Francisco

With special guests Kristine Poggioli and Carolyn Eidson

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019

Doors: 6:30 p.m., Show 7 p.m.

Tickets $5

Betabrand

780 Valencia Street (between 18th and 19th Streets)

Take Muni there: 12, 14, 22, 33, 47, 49. Or take BART: 16th Street Station.

Photo by @walkSF49

Category: Muni Diaries Live Tags: podcast, san francisco diaries

Need a place to find yourself? Try Muni (really).

August 22, 2019 eugenia Leave a comment

Muni is the through line in this week’s podcast story from Simone Herko Felton, a senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Simone has lived here all her life and takes the 23-Monterey to go to school daily. She explains what it’s like to be a high school student in San Francisco taking this cross town bus, and why this particular line is symbolic of her multi-ethnic identity.

Listeners who went to high school in the city will especially appreciate Simone’s call out to how to pronounce “Lowell” in the appropriate San Francisco accent.

Listen to her story here:

We’re always looking for great stories from San Franciscans! If you have a story to share on the podcast, pitch your story to us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com, and as always, add your own diary entry by tagging us @munidiaries on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Category: diaries Tags: 23-Monterey, podcast

San Francisco Diaries: Check your assumptions in the checkout line

August 7, 2019 eugenia 2 comments

I can’t think of how many times I’ve thought of a witty comeback too late, especially when someone behaves badly in public. But have you ever imagined what it would be like if you actually said what you wanted to say in that moment? Storyteller Justina Wu shares a story of an encounter when she spoke her mind in the moment, with some surprising results.

Listen to her story:

Justina is a writer, storyteller, and producer of Beyond Borders Storytelling, a series of travel-themed workshops and story jams. Justina was on stage at Muni Diaries Live a few years ago (check out her first story in episode 12 on Apple Podcast or Google Play.) And mark your calendars for the next show on August 14 at PianoFight in the Tenderloin.

Featured photo by @saintsimonanu. Post photo by @roopisonfire.

If you have your own San Francisco story to share, email us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com! And please share this podcast with your friends and rate is on Apple Podcast!