Poet Silvi Alcivar from The Poetry Store was on hand sharing her tale from riding Caltrain

En Español

More than a 100 Muni riders listened and laughed on Friday night at the Make-Out Room as their fellow passengers told tales at Muni Diaries Live.

Five different acts, including spoken-word poetry, a cheerleaders and a Muni-inspired band, performed at the free event put on by the Muni Diaries blog.

“Tonight has been amazing,” Jeff Hunt, the founder and co-editor of Muni Diaries, said. “This is our third spoken-word event and it’s been a blast.”

One rider told the story of a homeless man spitting on a woman while trying to spit out the window of the 1-California.

Vero Majano of the Mission Media Archives told the audience that she once  pretended she spoke no English – all to avoid a group of hoodlums harassing her in the back of the 14-Mission late-night bus.

Another rider said she remembered having to pay an extra fare for her Chihuahua while receiving change for a $5 bill from a fellow rider of the 1-California.

Poet Silvi Alcivar from the Poetry Store told about her voyage on Caltrain to go across the Peninsula and missing a mammogram appointment.  The conductor  made everything seem manageable by giving her a piece of chocolate.

“I wrote him a poem of gratitude, he told me it made his week,” Alcivar said.

The two-hour event also hosted McPuzo and Trotsky, a two-piece violin and banjo band “inspired by Muni, ”according to the band.

“Oh Muni, you disappoint me everyday/is it because I don’t pay?” was one line of the band’s lyrics.

“It’s really surprised me how well [Muni Diaries] has taken off,” Nico Crisafulli, a first-time audience member at Muni Diaries Live, said.

Crisafulli, a friend of Hunt’s, started his own diary blog, Roommate Diaries.  It features tales like the story of how a 42-year-old Microsoft retiree from Seattle burned CD’s from the public library to increase his music collection.

“Tonight is about getting our name out there,” Hunt said of his two-year-old blog, which averages around 800 hits per day. He said he hopes to have a redesign on the blog up soon.

Writer’s note: A redesign of Muni Diaries will not be taking place on Monday as previously written.

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Nick Sucharski is the current transportation reporter for Mission Loc@l.

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