- Titus Andronicus’s The Monitor
Prior to moving to Chicago I lived in the Boston area for about five years, where I had the distinct pleasure of taking trips down to NYC via the Fung Wah Bus Transportation line, which the feds shut down earlier this week. Riding a Fung Wah bus felt like a rite of passage—the company offered the kind of inexpensive transit experience every cash-strapped college student looking to save a little money eagerly sought, and it could get you to New York faster than most other forms of mass transit. Yes, there was something unsafe about getting from Boston to New York in three hours (or perhaps less), and yes, I’d heard tales of Fung Wah buses filling up with smoke or even catching fire while on the highway, but you generally knew what you were getting yourself into when boarding one of those buses. (The headline for a New York Times story on the shut-down says it all: “Cheap Bus Fare Lures Riders Despite Company’s Troubles.”)
I figured that Fung Wah would eventually get shut down or run out of business at some point, but even so I couldn’t help but feel slightly sad when I heard the news. Call it nostalgia, but the term “Fung Wah” will always remind me of random adventures that took me out of my college bubble. With that in mind I’ve selected Titus Andronicus‘s “A More Perfect Union” as today’s 12 O’Clock Track.
